Perfect Love; 



OR, THE SPEECHES OP 

Rev. E. L. JANES, Rev. H. MATTISON, D.D., Rev. D. 
CURRY, D.D., Rev. J. M. BUCiaEY, 
AND Rev. S. D. BROWN, 

IN THE 

New York Preachers' Meeting, 

m MAKCH AKD APEIL, 1867, 

UPON THE SUBJECT OP 

SANCTIFICATION. 

BISHOP JANES' SERMOJT, 

!\ 

ON 

SIN AND SALVATION, 

AT THE 

NEWARK CONFERENCE CAMP-MEETING, MORRISTOWN, AUG. 18, 1867. 




/ ^ NEW YOEK: 
N. TIBBALS & CO., 37 PAEK ROW. 
1868. 



CONTENTS. 

FAGB 

1. Inteoduotion, by De. Mattison 3 

11. Speech of Eey. E. L. Janes 11 

in. Speech op Hie am Mattison, D.D 19 

lY. Speech of Daniel Ctjeey, D.D 39 

Y. Speech of Rev. S. D. Beown 61 

YI. Speech of Rev. J. M. Bitcelet . 78 

YII. Seemon by Bishop Janes 106 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by 

HIRAM MA7TIS0N, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District C^.iirJ of the United States for the Southern 
District of New York. 



John J. RsEpt Pjinter, 43 Centre Street, New York. 



^ INTRODUCTION. 

£ 



THE origin of this volume is as follows : In the month of 
February, 1867, the Methodist Episcopal Preachers' 
Meeting of New York City, embracing all the Methodist 
preachers of New York and vicinity, had under discussion 
the question, " What are the best methods for promoting the ex- 
perience of perfect love Several speeches had been made, 
when one of them — that by Eev. J. S. Inskip — appeared in 
print in the columns of The Christian Advocate, Soon after- 
ward two others w^ere printed — namely, one by Dr. Cuery, 
editor of the Christian Advocate, and one by the writer. 

About this time several letters were received at the Book 
Eoom, asking for the publication of a part of the addresses, 
at least, in pamphlet or book form. This led a gentleman 
connected with the Book Eoom to determine to publish the 
whole series of speeches, pro and con., and to solicit of their 
respective authors copies for publication. Several of the 
speeches, now published elsewhere, were handed in for that 
purpose ; but while waiting for the balance one and another 
came in and took the manuscripts away ; some " for further 
correction," and others for other reasons. 

Of course, this broke up the whole plan — a plan which 
originated at the Book Eoom (though not with the Agents), 
and which, by every principle of justice and of honor, be- 
longed to the projector, and to no one else. 

Pretty soon it was rumored that the manuscripts taken 
away would not be returned, and that they were to be issued 
by themselves by Messrs. Foster & Palmer, publishers of the 
" Guide to Holiness'^ and other works on Christain Perfection, 

3 



4 



INTEODUCTION. 



In a short time the work appeared in pamphlet form, ^ 
under the title of *'True Method of Promoting Perfect 
Love. From Debates in the New York Preachers^ Meeting 
of the Methodist Episcopal Chiirch,^^ and with an " Introduc- 
tory Note" or Preface, by Br. Geo. W. Woodruff, of the 
New York East Conference. 

This book, though " from Debates in the New York 
Preachers' Meeting," excludes the speeches of Revs. E. L. 
Janes, Curry, Buckley, Brown, Foster, and Mattison, 
which were actually delivered ; and inserts instead, as part 
of the "Debates in the New York Preachers' Meeting" (if 
the title of the book is to be credited), two essays that 
never were delivered at all ! And to effectually block the 
wheels of the original projector of the publication at 200 
Mulberry st., the ex parte addresses are copyrighted by Messrs. 
Foster & Palmer, so that the whole debate cannot now be 
published in one volume, and the original plan is defeated ! 
This is what some would call " sharp practice," especially for 
a publishing house devoted to the diffusion of light upon the 
subject of Christian Perfection; but it probably ^a^s well, 
as the issue of the third edition in a few weeks shows, and 
that is evidently an important consideration. 

Upon this very singular transaction Dr. Curry says : 

"We have no exposition to make of the ^listory and mystery' of 
the book and its getting up, nor criticisms to offer upon the moral 
honesty of its one-sidedness — of its reviews and statements of the 
positions of others who are not allowed to speak for themselves. We 
must, perhaps, accept the affair as all right, and charge our lack of 
seeing it in that light to the absence of that special illumination in 
which others profess to walk." 

Upon the same subject Dr. Crary, editor of the Central 

Christian Advocate , says : 

" It is to be regretted, we think, that the speeches jpro and con. upon 
this subject are not given in this volume. Confessedly, both sides 
were ably argued, and the criticisms of the great thinkers who brought 



IiSrTRODUCTIO:N'. 



5 



on the. discussion should have been given. ^ ''^ ^ We believe that the 
excellent and learned men whose criticisms have resulted in these 
defences are good and true Methodist preachers, and their contest was 
for truth, not for victory. We repeat the wish that all their words had 
been published here too. It is hardly fair to take the quotations of 
one of the disputants for the arguments of the other. Our excellent 
friends, Drs. Curry and Mattison, say many good things, and we 
feel regret that this book does not give their speeches.'^ 

From the foregoing the public will understand why the 
whole debate is not published in one volume, as at first in- 
tended. It was forestalled and j^revenied by the publication 
and copyrighting of a part of the speeches, so that they could 
not be used by the original projector of the publication. 

BR. woodruff's " INTRODUCTORY NOTE." 

A few passages in this ''Note'' are worthy of notice here, 
and I proceed to quote them, and remark upon them in 
order. Br. W. says : 

" The question was no sooner opened than a veteran critic, on the 
subject of Christian Perfection, gave the whole thing a controver- 
sial aspect, and the unwelcome gauntlet had to be taken up by the 
friends of this glorious experience.'^ 

Just before this he speaks of "the lengthy and pungent 
discussion which subsequently followed from all which the 
reader would suppose that the " veteran critic" had thrown a 
firebrand into a peaceable company of Methodist preachers, 
met for a kind of experience meeting, and completely sub- 
verted the whole design of the love-feast. And that, too, as 
soon as the debate was opened ! But what are the facts ? 

As to time. " The question was no sooner opened," etc.; 
and yet I did not open my mouth upon the question until 
Eev. C. D. Foss and Kev. E. L. Janes had both spoken 
upon it. 

As to the challenge, The unwelcome gauntlet had to be 
taken up," is but a figurative way of saying that I challenged 
the other side to debate extraneous and unwelcome issues. 
1 



6 



INTEODUCTION. 



Tliat this is all a mistake any one can see who will turn to 
page 19 of this book, and read the question and the intro- 
duction to my speech. Though I speak of the importance 
and value of discussion, there is no " gauntlet" thrown down, 
nor anything to warrant the showing of Br. Woodruff in 
this respect. In fact, several of the speakers whose addresses 
he commends fully indorsed my position, that to promote 
the experience of perfect love we must understand what it is, 
and the true theory of sanctification ; and, consequently, 
that the turn my speech gave to the discussion was legitimate 
and proper. 

After stating the question, Br. Inskip said : 

"If we would lead our people to this experience, we most certainly 
should give them a correct idea of its nature and necessity. What 
sanctification is, and how it may be obtained, are two very different 
questions ; and yet they are intimately connected. In order that we 
may obtain this great salvation, it is obviously very important we 
should understand what it implies and what it includes.'' 

This, as any one can see who will turn to my first propo- 
sition, page 20, is almost precisely what I affirmed, and all 
that I affirmed ; and yet in my case it is characterized as an 
"unwelcome gauntlet" thrown down, which brethren felt 
compelled reluctantly to take up ! 

Rev. Br. Boole also fully indorsed my view when he said : 

" In my conviction, one of the best methods of promoting the 
experience of perfect love is, that ministers and teachers instruct the 
people correctly in this doctrine j and especially show its relation to our jus- 
tification, and the HO W and WHEN of its attainment. It was well 
and truly said here, that it does greatly matter what a Christian be- 
lieves on this subject. How can he find a blessing if he knows not 
the way to it? — (/SJpeecA, pp. 23, 24.) 

Here is a specific allusion to, and a full endorsement of, my 
position at the opening of my speech — an approval of the 
" gauntlet," so called. 



INTKODUCTION. 



7 



Br. HuBBELL inculcates the same general idea in his 
introduction when he says : 

It therefore becomes necessary to harmonize, as much as possible, 
our views of the fundamental principles involved in or associated with 
this great experience ; we need to build up together from the base ; 
we must have the key-note rights and then harmonize all others with 
that standard.'^ — {Speech, pp. 90, 91.) 

Br. Adams indorsed our view in his introduction, by 
naming as the first thing to be done in " laboring definitely 
for its promotion," " explaining the doctrine, showing what it 
is."— (p. 112.) 

So also Br. Parker : 

" I do not, with some of my brethren, deplore the debate in pro- 
gress, relating, as it does, to the most vital topic of New Testament 
revelation." 

And then proceeds to show what we should " teach," in 
order to the promotion of perfect love. — (See pp. 118, 120.) 

Thus from first to last no speaker complained of any per- 
version of the discussion, or any "gauntlet" having been 
thrown down. Neither did I dream that any such thing had 
occurred, till I saw it in the preface of the book on " Perfect 
Love." 

That Br. Woodruff did not see anything amiss at the time 
is quite certain. In a letter to Zion's Serald, written imme- 
diately after my speech, he represents me as " starting with 
the proposition that the best way to promote the experience 
of Christian perfection was to give to the people a definite 
and truthful idea of what the doctrine is ;" but finds no fault 
with the position, nor intimates that any "gauntlet" had 
been thrown down which he, or others on his side, would be 
obliged to take up. 

Further on in the same letter he said : 

" His address at the Preachers^ Meeting was calm and scholarly and 
impressive ; and if it shall be met and answered with the same spirit 



8 INTEODUCTION. 

and ability, it may be expected that this discussion will have a large 
influence upon some of the leading ministers of our Church." — 
{Herald, Feb, 6, '67.) 

In a letter to the Western Christian Advocate, in whicli he 
refers to the debate, he says : 

"We have had now six carefully prepared addresses on the subject. 
Dr. Curry, Prof. Mattison, and Mr. Buckley have seemed to afliliate 
on one side of the discussion, and the president of the meeting, Mr. 
Inskip, and Brother Boole, and Dr. Eoche have ably and earnestly 
presented the other side.'' -h- -j?- 

"If it was not too solemn a subject to be trifled with, it would be a 
little amusing to see how oracular some of our New York divines be- 
come when they pronounce themselves against the commonly-received 
theories of the Church ; but plain, honest souls have nothing to fear ; 
the good old doctrine of perfect love has survived the shock of many 
discussions, and will not be easily shaken out of the theology of 
Methodism." 

Here certain " New York divines'^ and members of the 
Preachers' Meeting are " shown up " to the fifty thousand 
readers of the " Western^' as "pronouncing against the com- 
monly received theology of the Church." But the same 
article avers that only six men had spoken up to that time. 
Who, then, had arrayed themselves against Methodist the- 
ology ? Were they Brothers Inskip, Boole, and Koche ? 
Certainly not. Br. Woodruff did not intend that. He re- 
gards them as sound in their theology. Who, then, did he 
mean? Most obviously two or more of the other three 
named — probably all three of us. 

Here, then, we are publicly arraigned before the readers 
of that widely circulated paper, lay and clerical, and charged 
"with pronouncing ourselves against the commonly received 
theology of the Methodist Episcopal Church. I will only 
add, that, so far as I have knowledge, no one of the three 
referred to had done anything of the kind, or uttered a 
sentence to warrant any such representation. If there is 



INTEODUCTIOI^T. 



9 



any "New Divinity" in the discussion, it was not put there 
by Bros. Curry, Buckley or myself. 

As to the spirit of the discussion, which Br. Woodruff's 
preface characterizes as being pungent/' it is sufficient to 
cite Br. W. himself, who says, further on, that " the whole 
debate was characterized with dignity and research, and was 
very creditable to the brethren who participated in it f and 
Br. Inskip, who immediately followed the "gauntlet,'' 
said : 

The speeches already made have been so free from all offensive 
personalities, and so obviously in the spirit of ^brotherly love,^ that 
we may confidently hope the cause of truth will be advanced, and our 
own souls refreshed and edified by the discussion.'^ — {Speech, p. 9.) 

So much, then, for the terrible "gauntlet" which Br. 
Woodruff subsequently saw had been thrown down, and the 
other side had been reluctantly compelled to take up. But 
the calamity ended Vv^ell, as the reader shall next hear : 

The final result of the protracted discussion was highly satisfactory 
to those who believe, with the venerable Wesley, that ^ the Methodists 
were a people raised up to spread scriptural holiness over these 
lands.' " 

So says Br. Woodruff in his " Introductory Note." Why, 
then, did not the brethren, who were so " highly satisfied," 
see to it that the whole discussion should go before the public, 
instead of even consenting to a piece of sharp practice which 
gives the public one side only of the discussion, and renders 
it impossible for the rightful author of the plan to publish 
the whole together, as at first intended ? To many the course 
things took in this respect is not well calculated to impress 
them that Br. W. and his friends -weicevery " highly satisfied." 

And now comes a sort of explanation or apology for the 
ex parte pamphlet : 

I believe that it was at first intended to publish in one volume all 
the addresses that were made in the debate ; and I judge that such an 
arrangement would have added to the value of the book ; it would, 



10 



INTEODUCTIOI^. 



at least, have shown more fully the appositeness and power of the 
speeches here published: but the omission is to be less regretted 
since two of the leading addresses, which are here antagonized, were 
very fully reported in ' The Christian Advocate,^ " 

" I believe it was at first intended," etc. True, Br. W., you 
do believe,'' and still more you know what you say you 
believe'' — namely, that others were intending and preparing 
to publish the whole in book form. Why, then, speak of it 
as doubtful ? 

But you speak of " the omission," as if the original pro- 
jectors of the plan of publishing the whole together had 
voluntarily abandoned it — a sly intimation, it seems to me^ 
that they gave it up because they were not satisfied with the 
results ; or, in other words, were defeated in the debate. So 
I think it will strike most readers who know nothing of the 
facts except what they get from the " Introductory Note.'' 

But I do not wish to intimate in all this that " G. W. W." 
is an evil-disposed brother, or means to misrepresent any- 
thing. On the contrary, I believe him to be a good man at 
heart and to mean well in all he does. But he is a strong 
partisan in this discussion ; sees everything through a colored 
medium, and is, withal, somewhat impulsive ; and having been 
requested to write the " Introductory K'ote," and probably 
stimulated a little by certain nameless influences, he wrote as 
he did, doubtless in haste, and scarcely pausing to consider 
the bearing and apparent animus of what he had written. 
But with the foregoing history of the facts in the case it may 
now be safely left to the judgment of others. 

It is only necessary to add that the following pages con- 
tain all the speeches we have been able to secure for pub- 
lication. 

H. Mattisok. 

Jersey City, N. J., September 10, 1867. 



NEW YORK PREACHERS' MEETING. 



I. 

SPEECH OF REV. E. L. JANES, 

JANUARY 28, 1867. 

ME. PEESIDENT :— The question, What are tie 
best methods of promoting perfect love?^^ is one of 
grave importance, and legitimately belongs to that class of 
questions that may be discussed with propriety and profit 
by this Preachers' Meeting. 

I understand the term " perfect love/^ as here employed, 
as synonymous with the terms Christian perfection and 
entire sanctification ; and we often use the more general 
term holiness in the same specific sense. 

The nature and attainableness of this high state of 
graces are not the topics indicated by the inquiry be- 
fore us. 

As ministers of a Church which has always held, and 
to some extent experienced and practised, this sublime 
doctrine, it would seem to be a reflection upon our ortho- 
doxy now to question whether man can be made pure 
in heart and perfect in love in this life. It may be taken 
for granted that we all, as sons of Wesley, stand theo- 
retically upon this foundation-principle and gather round 

11 



12 NEW YOEK PEEACHEES^ MEETING. 



this central truth — that a pure heart and a perfect Christian 
life are the lofty privilege and imperious duty of the 
Christian believer. 

There may be differences of opinion on minor points, 
but all subordinate questions become insignificant and will 
disappear in the all-engrossing and soul-absorbing work 
of seeking the thing itself. 

If one is fully decided and sternly resolved to be a 
holy man, he will find his theoretical difficulties to give 
way before the power of faith and prayer. It may seem 
impracticable to the traveler, standing at the base of the 
mountain, to ascend ; it looks so high, so steep, so rugged ; 
but beginning the ascent, he finds it less difficult than it 
looked to be, and he often finds a path made by preceding 
footsteps ! So the aspirant after holiness finds a way cast 
up for the ransomed of the Lord to walk in, and along 
that ascending path he may trace, among many others, 
the footprints of Wesley, Fletcher, Bramwell, Hedding, 
and Payson. 

We believe Payson was a holy man in spite of his 
creed, and that thousands more, who, having overstepped 
the boundaries of their creeds, have, by faith, entered into 
this sacred rest from sin. 

Believing, as doubtless we do, not only in a salvation 
from the guilt and dominion of sin by justification and 
regeneration, but from the being and pollution of sin by 
entire sanctification, it becomes a thrilling question with 
us as Gospel ministers, by what method can the work of 
holiness be most efficiently promoted in the ministry and 
membership of the Methodist Church and throughout 
Christendom ? 

In regard to the ministry, one way to promote the cause 



SPEECH OF HEY. E. L. JANES. 



13 



of holiness is to become ourselves tlie subjects of its soul- 
inspiring experience. 

If the 7^576 traveling ministers and the 8,602 local 
preachers in the Methodist Episcopal Churchy making a 
grand total of more than sixteen thousand^ were to possess 
perfect love in their hearts^ illustrate it in their lives^ and 
preach it in the pulpit^ would not this be a promotion of 
the glorious work on a grand scale and in the right 
direction ? 

The influence of such an array of holy men would be 
something like a millenium power in the Church ! Bat 
in regard to both the ministry and membership of the 
Church, the first step to be taken in the promotion of 
experimental and practical holiness is the prayerful study 
of the Bible w^ith this subject directly in view. 

As the Bible contains the principles, precepts, promises, 
and examples of holiness, if it is studiously, prayerfully, 
and believingly consulted, its principles will lay the 
foundation, its precepts will guide, and its promises and 
examples will animate us in building the superstructure. 

To the Bible we must go as ministers for ourselves, 
and for and with our people. 

Wliat an attractive and impressive scene would be 
presented to the world v^ere the ministry and membership 
of the Wesleyan Church in Christendom to be seen 
bending together over the sacred page with the intense 
desire of being more deeply impressed with what God^s 
word teaches, commands, and promises in regard to 
Christian perfection ! 

To such earnest students there could come a voice from 
the Divine oracles as from the throne and perfections of 
Jehovah, ^^Be ye holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.^^ 

2 



14 NEW YORK preachers' MEETING. 



If anything will ever arouse the Church to seek and 
practice gospel purity, it will be the combined power and 
impulses of the word and Spirit of God. 

When the attention has been arrested and intense 
desires awakened by the study of the Bible and the 
accompanying power of the Holy Spirit, our unholi- 
ness having been brought in startling contrast with God^s 
infinite purity/ then special opportunities might be afforded 
for the purpose of bringing together in sympathy and 
effort those who have obtained, and those who are seeking 
perfect love. 

Mr. Wesley did not inculcate silence or secrecy on the 
part of those who enjoy this high attainment. 

He says, " God does not raise such a monument of his 
power and love to hide it from all mankind. He designs 
thereby not barely the happiness of their individual per- 
son, but the animating and encouraging others to follow 
after the same blessing.'^ 

He adds: "Nor does anything under heaven more 
quicken the desires of those who are justified, than to con- 
verse with those whom they believe to have experienced 
a still higher salvation. This places that salvation full 
in their view, and increases their hunger and thirst after 
it ; an advantage which must have been entirely lost, had 
the person so saved buried himself in silence.^^ 

We would not ignore the agency of the pulpit in the 
work of* promoting holiness. 

The doctrine should be expounded and enforced in the 
sacred desk. 

But we can place very little reliance on an annual or 
semi-annual sermon on the subject. 

It should be incorporated, to some extent, in every 



SPEECH OF EEV. E. E. JANES. 



15 



sermon preached to adult believers, who being assured of 
their justification and regeneration, feel, nevertheless, the 
remains of the carnal mind, and sigh to be cleansed from 
all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, and to perfect holiness 
in the fear of God/^ 

Much dependence may be placed upon the personal 
effort of ministers in the promotion of the experience of 
perfect love. 

The work of presenting every man perfect in Christ 
Jesus cannot be exclusively done in the pulpit nor in 
the prayer-meeting. There must be a personal influence 
and guidance. 

The pastor must go and seek that spiritual traveler, 
standing at the base of the mountain of holiness, and, 
like the experienced guides over the Alps, say, I have 
climbed this mountain; I will direct and assist you to 
reach its summit. 

How gladly and gratefully will that perplexed and 
panting traveler accept of such assistance. 

The longer I live, and the more extended my observa- 
tions, the more deeply am I impressed with the importance 
and necessity of personal effort on the part of Christian 
ministers in every department of their work. 

Perhaps nothing contributes more to the promotion of 
holiness than the practice of it. 

It may be safely presupposed that the question under 
discussion has been adopted by those who have either 
experienced perfect love or are growing after it. 

To all such the answer is appropriate — practice it — 
live a holy life. 

The experience and practice of holiness are united to 
each other by Gospel authority, and must not be divorced. 



16 



NEW YORK PEEACHERS' MEETING. 



If we could have an angel in visible form^ robed in 
light and love^ always by our side^ we should be attrac- 
tive^ because in association with a being so pure and lovely. 

Purity of heart, like an angel within us, will speak 
through our tongues — shine through our countenances — 
sparkle in our eyes, and exhibit and demonstrate itself 
in our actions. 

What a potent influence in behalf of perfect love will 
that minister exert who takes this angel with him into 
the pulpit, into the prayer-meeting and social gatherings 
of the church ! 

The holy life of such a minister will have more than 
angelic attraction ; it will be Christ-like in its character 
and power, and many believers thus attracted by the 
beauty of holiness will be led to admire and seek it. 

Nor are Christian ministers fully prepared for their 
holy mission until they have graduated in this higher 
department of religious experience. 

Their light will be dim and unsteady until their 
natures are sanctified by divine grace and their lives 
regulated by perfect love. 

Then will they not only have burnished lamps, but 
burning oil, and will shed a clear and attractive light 
around them. 

The success of Christianity, so far as human instru- 
mentality is concerned, depends not upon the number of 
its professed adherents, but on the comparatively few, who 
illustrate, its truths by consistent, devoted Christian lives. 

The great doctrine of holiness, which is an essential 
part of Christianity, will find favor Vvdth the children of 
God in proportion as its advocates present practical illus- 
trations and demonstrations of its beauty and power. 



SPEECH OF EEY. E. L. JAIS^ES. 



17 



Brethren^ are not some of us still standing at the base 
of the mountain of holiness when we should be upon its 
elevations^ and from those sublime heights be calling upon 
justified believers to come up higher? 

If preliminaries are necessary, have we not had in our 
past experience and opportunities all that is necessary as 
l^reparatory to the work of entire sanctification ? 

Salvation is, by faith, from its lowest to its highest 
attainment, and as the Holy Spirit is the efficient agent 
in the work of entire sanctification, its consummation may 
be now." 

He only who is the subject of this work can limit the 
Holy Spirit, or prolong the time of its accomplishment ! 

By a trembling and hesitating faith he may delay the 
work of heart-cleansing, or by a mighty act of faith he 
may embrace and realize the promise of full salvation 
now. 

This agrees with the sentiment of Mr. Wesley, who 
says that this salvation is receivable by mere faith, and 
hindered only by unbelief." 

Have we not stood long enough in the vestibule of the 
temple of holiness ? Let us all enter the temple itself, 
and join with those who have preceded and those who 
may follow us, in making its lofty domes echo Mdth the 
triumphant song of praise unto him that loved us, and 
washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath 
made us kings and priests unto God and his Father ; to 
him be glory and dominion for ever and ever." 

Motives crowd upon us on every hand to possess the 
highest attainments in Christianity, that we may wield 
the greatest degree of influence and accomplish the 
greatest possible amount of usefulness. 

2* 



18 



NEW YORK preachers' MEETING. 



History informs us that, as the pilgrims approached Je- 
rusalem, the foremost in that long and weary procession, — 
as they reached the last summit that overlooked the city, — 
cried out: ^^The holy city! the holy city!'' and the joyous 
words were conveyed along the extended line of pilgrims, 
inspiring them to press forward and upward to catch a 
view of the sacred place where the Messiah died. 

Ought not Christian ministers to be the foremost in point 
of attainments as well as position, and from the heights 
of holiness that overlook both earth and heaven, send 
back a voice of encouragement that shall rally the Church 
to fresh efforts, and inspire her with intense ardor in 
reaching higher ground and more elevated positions, which 
she must occupy before the world can be converted to 
God. 

I will add only one thought more. 

Christian holiness invests the Gospel minister with the 
power of usefulness in the time of advanced years. The 
time is coming when there will be grey hairs upon us 
here and there, and when, by the pressure of years and 
infirmities, we shall be obliged to retire from the active 
work of the ministry. 

Such will find holiness of heart and life the best sub- 
stitute for the activities of the ministry. 

They may have a beautiful and attractive old age, and 
with the prestige of a long and useful career, and by the 
influence of a pure character, may contribute, to the latest 
hour of life, to promote in others the experience of per- 
fect love. 

Note. — With tlie general sentiment and spirit of this address I 
most cordially agree and sympathize. — Editor. 



II. 



SPEECH OF H. MATTISON, D. D. 

JANUARY 28, 1867. 

"WHAT dve the best methods of promoting the experi" 
^ ' ence of perfect lovef^ 

Such, Mr. President, is the question before us. To 
fully answer it, we must not only state our views in respect 
to the nature and attainment of holiness, but our reasons 
for entertaining such views, and why we cannot adopt the 
opposite views. This involves the idea of discussion, or 

controversy,'^ of which some good men entertain such a 
dread. But I am free to say that I have no sympathy 
with this excessive fear of discussion. St. Paul and 
Luther, and Wesley and Fletcher, and the early Metho- 
dist preachers, were practical controversialists almost to a 
man. It is by controversy that the truth is arrived at, 
the chaff separated from the wheat, and the cause of God 
advanced in the earth. "We need and must have contro- 
versy in the great battle between truth and error, holiness^ 
and sin ; and the Church is never in greater danger than 
when she returns to its scabbard the sword which Christ 
himself unsheathed and wielded. Was not his whole 
ministry an almost continuous controversy ? 

And I have no sympathy with the policy of some of 
our editors, in shutting the discussion of great and living 
questions out of their columns. Let them control the 
manner, but let all great current issues be thoroughly dis- 
cussed. Our people are suffering,' and many of them 

19 



20 



NEW YOKK PEEACHEES' MEETING, 



bewildered, and wandering here and there in their 
doctrinal views, in some instances for the want of the 
verj discussions which are shut out of our papers. 

Personally, I have no cause to complain of our editors. 
Since I came back to the M. E. Church they have all 
treated me well, and no one of them has declined to pub- 
lish even controversial articles from me; but I speak of 
the general policy of some of our papers as indicating too 
great a dread of discussion. But to the question before us. 

Understanding the phrase perfect love^^ as synony- 
mous with Christian perfection or entire sanctification, as 
understood by Methodists generally, my answer to the 
question would include, among other things which I must 
not now take time to present, the following particulars : 

I. We must give to all those whom we would lead on to entire 
sanctification y distinct and definite ideas as to what 
that state of grace is to which we would have them attain. 

" This," says Mr. Fletcher, " is absolutelj necessary. If you will 
hit a mark, you must know where it is. Some people aim at Christian 
perfection ; but, mistaking it for angelical perfection, they shoot above 
the mark, miss it, and then peevishly give up their hopes. Others 
place the mark as much too low. Hence it is that you hear them pro- 
fess to have attained Christian perfection, when they have not so much 
as attained the mental serenity of a philosopher, or the candor of a 
good-natured, conscientious heathen." — Treatise on Christian Perfection^ 
32mo., p. 34. 

And is not such the case in our own times? Have not 
some, by placing the mark too low, imagined that they 
have attained to, and openly professed, entire sanctifica- 
tion, who are obviously far from being perfect either in 
love or any other Christian grace? And are not such 
mistakes, upon such a subject, a calamity to the Church, 
and to the individuals who make them? 



SPEECH OF H. MATTISON^ D. D. 21 

We cannot be too particular^ therefore, it seems to me, 
nor too tenacious, in insisting upon a correct theory and 
correct teaching upon this all-important subject. Say 
what we may in disparagement of dogmatic theology/' 
•or of ^^mere theorizers/' the whole experience and prac- 
tice depends upon the theory, and reflects its peculiarities. 
If, therefore, we ever have a correct experience, we must 
have a correct theory ; or, in other words, if we would 
lead our people on to perfect love, they must be taught 
what it is, and how it is to be attained, as those things are 
revealed in the gospel of Christ. 

II. Perfect love or entire sandification, as I understand 

it, is THE ENTIEE REMOVAL OE DESTRUCTION OF INBRED 

SIN, or the carnal mind; followed by the disappearance of 
all outward manifestations of inward depravity, and the ex- 
hibition of all the fruits of the Spirit— love, joy, peace, long^ 
suffering, gentleness, goodness, meehiess, patience, and 
charity, in evangelical perfection. 

This is what I understand the apostle to mean by 
"perfect and complete in all the will of God,'' Col. iv. 22; 
and being "sanctified wholly." 1 Thess. v. 23. The 
following is Mr. Fletcher's definition of Christian per- 
fection : 

We call Christian perfection the maturity of grace and holiness, 
which established, adult believers attain to under the Christian dis- 
pensation ; and by this means we distinguish that maturity of grace 
both from the ripeness of grace which belongs to the dispensation of 
the Jews below us, and from the ripeness of glory which belongs to 
departed saints above us. Hence it appears that, by Christian per- 
fection, we mean nothing but the cluster and maturity of the graces 
which compose the Christian character in the Church militant. 

In other words. Christian perfection is a spiritual constellation made 
up of these gracious stars-perfect repentance, perfect faith, perfect 
humility, perfect meekness, perfect self-denial, perfect resignation, 



22 



NEW YORK PREACHEES' MEETING. 



perfect hope, perfect charity for our visible enemies, as well as for our 
earthly relations; and, above all, perfect love for our invisible God, 
through the explicit knowledge of our Mediator Jesus Christ. — 
Treatise, pp. 9, lO."^ 

Mark the language of this definition ; it is the ma- 
turity of grace which established adult believers attain 
to/^ And further, it is called " the maturity of graces/^ 
etc. How plain from all this that he did not regard it as 
a thing to be obtained at any time by the immature, un- 
settled, and young Christian ; but as a high endowment, 
to which "adult believers only, and " mature and 
"established^^ Christians, might hope to attain. Mark, 
also, how high a state of grace Mr. Fletcher understood 
this to be — namely, one of perfect faith, perfect humility , 
perfect meekness, perfect self-denial, peifect resignation, per^ 
feet charity, perfect patience, and perfect love even for our 
enemies. Certainly, Mr. Fletcher regarded Christian per- 
fection as a very high state — as the very Pisgah of moral 
attainment in this world — and was utterly opposed to all 
attempts to lower the standard below the scriptural 

^' It is worthy of note that no one of the brethren on the other side 
cited this definition in any of their speeches. The only allusion to it 
was by Dr. Eoche, who says (p. 53) : "Dr. M. has raised the mark so 
high that none may hope to reach it." Brother "Woodruff was so well 
pleased with this remark that he sent it to the Western Christian Ad- 
vocate in this form : Dr. Boche said last Monday that Professor Mat- 
tison had put the mark so high as practically to destroy the doctrine, 
and that Dr. Curry had put it so low as absolutely to wipe it out." 
And yet I "raised" no "mark" whatever, except by quoting this 
formal definition of Christian perfection by one of our standard 
Methodist authorities upon the subject ! Is it not more likely, there- 
fore, that Dr. E. has lowered the " mark" below the true Methodistic alti- 
tude, than it is that I have raised it too high ? — Editor, 



SPEECH OF H. MATTISON, D. D. 



23 



altitude, or to countenance a spurious perfection or pro- 
fession of holiness.* 

And just here, Mr. Chairman, I have a complaint to 
make against some of our brethren who make this subject 
a specialty ; claim to have special light upon it, and to 
have experienced what few of us enjoy ; and who travel 
from city to city, preaching and holding meetings, and 
circulating books and periodicals upon the subject of 
" holiness.^^ And it is this : that, whether intentionally 
or not, they often fail to represent our standard Metho- 
dist authorities fairly when they profess to quote them 
upon the subject. For instance, one writer f who is circu- 
lating his book from charge to charge, has a section on 
" the nature of Christian perfection,^^ J in which he asks 
the question, "What constitutes Christian perfection?'^ 
and then proceeds to give answers professedly from Mr. 
Wesley, Fletcher, and others. In Mr. Fletcher's treatise, 
the very first section, page 8, is entitled, " Christian Per- 
fection Defined,'^ after which he proceeds to define what 
he understood by Christian perfection. Now, I insist 
that if any one wishes to cite Mr. Fletcher as an authority 
as to the nature of Christian perfection, he is bound in all 
honesty and fairness to cite what he has written w^here he 

^Eev. Samuel Dunn fully indorses tliis high standard when he 
says : " If faith is made perfect, unbelief cannot exist. When the soul 
is fully clothed with humility, pride must be extinct ; when perfectly 
adorned with meekness, sinful anger can have no place. When 
patience has its perfect work, peevishness and discontent must depart. 
Where love to God is made perfect, there must be the exclusion of 
self-will and love of the world ; and this is what the Scripture means 
by entire sanctification." — Speechy pp. 132, 133. 

f Eev. J. A. Wood, a local preacher in the Wyoming Conference. 

% Page 26 of his work. 



24 



KEW YOEK PBExiCHEES' MEETING. 



professes to define his views. And yet^ so far from doing 
this, the writer referred to has not only ignored or sup- 
pressed Mr. Fletcher's formal definition of the nature of 
perfect love, placed prominently in the foreground of his 
treatise, under the caption Christian perfection defined/^ 
that he might not be misunderstood or misrepresented, 
but has cited in its stead a passage certainly never written 
as a definition, and which I have not yet been able to find 
in all Mr. Fletcher's writings. And even the author of 
the book was unable to tell me where it could be found. 
Here is the passage : 

2. Eev. John Fletcher says: "It is the depth of evangelical repent- 
ance, the full assurance of faith, and the pure love of God and man shed 
abroad in a faithful believer's heart by the Holy Ghost given unto him 
to cleanse him and to keep him clean, from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, 
and to enable him to ^ fulfill the law of Christ/ according to the talents 
he is intrusted with, and the circumstances in which he is placed in 
this world."— pp. 26, 27. 

Who does not see that, compared with Mr. Fletcher's 
own professed definition of Christian perfection, this quo- 
tation is vague, obscure, and unsatisfactory ? Why, then, 
was it substituted for the true and formal definition? 
Was the latter too clear and strong, placing the standard 
too high for some modern experiences and lives ? Was it 
to get rid of the perfect repentance, perfect faith, perfect 
humility, perfect meekness,'^ &c. ? * 

It is by this method of quoting authors, very common 
throughout the book, that the real views of our standard 
writers are either obscured or perverted, the ideas of our 

^ Eev. Mr. Boole also ignores Mr. Fletcher^s definition of Christian 
perfection, and quotes this dubious passage from Brother Wood's book 
instead. Why this efibrt to conceal the real views of our standard 
Methodist writers ? 



SPEECH OF H. MATTISON, D. D. 



25 



people confused, and the attainment of genuine Christian 
perfection greatly hindered in the Church. 

While, in the opinion of Mr. Wesley, many attained to 
perfect love in his day, there were others, and not a few 
of them, Yv^ho fell into the error deprecated by Mr. 
Fletcher, placed the standard too low, and openly pro- 
fessed holiness" when they knew little or nothing about 
it. Of these Mr. Wesley thus writes : 

But some who have much love, peace, and joy, yet have not the di- 
rect witness. And others who think they have, are nevertheless 
manifestly wanting in the fruit. How many I will not say; perhaps 
one in ten, perhaps more or fewer. But some are undeniably wanting 
in long-suffering and Christian resignation. They do not see the hand 
of God in whatever occurs, and cheerfully embrace it. They do not 
in everything give thanks and rejoice evermore. They are not 
happy; at least, not always happy. For sometimes they complain. 
They say, " This or that is hardr 

Some are wanting in gentleness. They resist evil, instead of turning 
the other cheek. They do not receive reproach with gentleness ; no, 
nor even reproof. Nay, they are not able to bear contradiction, with- 
out the appearance, at least, of resentment. If they are reproved or 
contradicted, though mildly, they do not take it well. They behave 
with more distance and reserve than they did before. If they are re- 
proved or contradicted harshly, they answer it with harshness, with a 
loud voice, or with an angry tone, or in a sharp or surly manner. 
They speak sharply, or roughly, when they reprove others, and be- 
have roughly to their inferiors. 

Some are wanting in goodness. They are not kind, mild, sweet, 
amiable, soft, and loving at all times, in their spirit, in their words, 
in their looks and air, in the whole tenor of their behaviour ; and that 
to all, high and low, rich and poor, without respect of persons ; par- 
ticularly to them that are out of the way, to opposers, and to those of 
their own household. They do not long, study, endeavor by every 
means to make all about them happy. They can see them uneasy, 
and not be concerned ; perhaps they make them so. And then wipe 
their mouths and say, ''Why, they deserve it. It is their own fault." 

Some are wanting in fidelity, a nice regard to truth, simplicity, and 
2 



26 



NEW YOEK PEEACHEES' MEETING. 



godly sincerity. Their love is hardly without dissimulation; something 
like guile is found in their mouth. They are smooth to an excess, so 
as scarce to avoid a degree of fawning, or of seeming to mean what 
they do not. 

Some are wanting in meekness, quietness of spirit, composure, even- 
ness of temper. They are up and down, sometimes high, sometimes 
low ; their mind is not well balanced. Their affections are either not 
in due proportion, they have too much of one, too little of another ; or 
they are not duly mixed and tempered together, so as to counterpoise 
each other. Hence, there is often a jar. Their soul is out of time, 
and cannot make the true harmony. 

Some are wanting in temperance. They do not steadily use that 
kind and degree of food which they know, or might know, would most 
conduce to the health, strength, and vigor of the body ; or they are 
not temperate in sleep ; they do not vigorously adhere to what is best, 
both for body and mind ; otherwise they would constantly go to bed 
and rise early, and at a fixed hour ; or they sup late, which is neither 
good for body nor soul ; or they use neither fasting nor abstinence ; or 
they prefer (which are so many sorts of intemperance) that preaching, 
reading, or conversation, which gives them transient joy and comfort, 
before that which brings godly sorrow, or instruction in righteousness. 
Such joy is not sanctified; it doth not tend to, and terminate in, the 
crucifixion of the heart. Such faith doth not centre in God, but rather 
in itself. 

So far all is plain. I believe you have faith and love and joy and 
peace. Yet you who are particularly concerned know, each for your- 
self, that you are wanting in the respects above-mentioned. You are 
wanting either in long-suffering, gentleness, or goodness ; either in 
fidelity, meekness, or temperance. Let us not, then, on either hand, 
fight about wordsan the thing we clearly agree. 

You have not what I call perfection ; if others will call it so, they 
may. — Wesleifs Plain Account of Christian Perfection, IVorks, vol. vi., 
pp. 518, 519.^ 

If such a spurious perfection developed itself under the 

^ Dr. Eoche replies to this extract as if cited to show that none of 
the professors in London were really wholly sanctified. But I con- 
ceded that many were truly sanctified before making the quotation ; 
and cite it merely to show that while many had a genuine experience, 
others set the standard too low, and were self-deceived. — EcL 



SPEECH OF H. MATTISON^ D. D. 



27 



very eye and teachings of Mr. "Wesley himself^ what 
wonder if a still worse counterfeit should appear under 
the teachings of others far less knowings or wise or holy ? 

If we hope to promote the experience of perfect love in 
this land^ we must do as Mr. Wesley did in the above 
instance, and as he advised others to do, namely : 

Set the false witnesses aside, 
Yet hold the truth for ever fast. 

III. To attain to the state of entire sandijication we 
must fully recognize the d.octrine of partial sanctification. 

Some speak of conversion as consisting of simple parc?07i, 
entirely ignoring regeneration, or the renewing of the soul 
by the Holy Spirit. Others admit regeneration, but deny 
or ignore the fact that regeneration is partial sanctifica- 
tion. All this is New Divinity. Every regenerate soul 
is sanctified, but not wholly sanctified. Hence Mr. Wes- 
ley very truly says, that ^' the term sanctified is continually 
applied by St. Paul to all that were justified; by that 
term alone he rarely, if ever, means saved from all sin.^^ 

There are no unsanctified Christians. All true believers 
are sanctified and holy, though not yet ivholly sanctified, 
ov perfected in holiness."^ 

Now it is an axiom with some that to enjoy any degree 
of grace in the soul we must distinctly recognize and pro- 
fess it. How, then, are we to attain to entire sanctifica- 
tion, while we fail to acknowledge and profess the partial 

*Upon this point !Rev. Samuel Dunn says: "Regeneration is 
sanctification begun ; sanctification is regeneration matured or per- 
fected. All, therefore, who are regenerated are partially sanctified ; 
but all who are regenerated are not entirely sanctified. This is evi- 
dent from the experience of believers, and from the whole tenor of the 
word oiQodir— Speech, p. 130. 



28 



NEW YOEK PEEACHEES' MEETING. 



work effected at conversion, and subsequently as we in- 
crease in holiness ? If we bury or ignore the one talent^ 
how can we expect the ten? 

Hence I believe, Mr. Chairman, that one of the greatest 
obstacles to the experience of perfect love, and one that 
we ought at once to remove, is the constant ignoring or 
disparagement of the Wesleyan doctrine of partial sancti- 
fication at conversion, and subsequently from time to time 
and from stage to stage. But of this under another 
head. 

IV. If toe wish to promote the experience of a genuine 
^'perfect love,^ we must receive and everywhere insist upon the 
old Wesleyan and scriptural doctrine that sanctification 

IS GEADUAL aS Well aS INSTANTANEOUS. 

Most of those who make perfect love a specialty utterly 
deny or ignore all gradual sanctification. Read their 
books and periodicals, and listen to their teachings, and 
you never hear it mentioned unless it be to slur it, or to 
openly oppose it. Not a few even sneer at gradualism,'^ 
as they term it, as they Avould at Mormonism or Spiritual- 
ism. Brother Wood is very specific upon this point, 
aiming twenty-three pages of his book against the idea of 
any gradual sanctification whatever. On page 55 he asks 
the question, Can a person successfully seek the gradual 
attainment of entire santification and answers, No. . . 
To seek a gradual purity renders the attainment of entire 
sanctification impossible.^' And lest I might misunder- 
stand him, I asked him what his idea Avas, when he told 
me frankly that a man might grow in grace for seventy 
years, and not be a particle more holy than when first 
converted. 

Such views I regard as unscriptural, unmethodistic. 



SPEECH OF H. MATTISON, D. D. 



29 



and injurious; and a great hindrance to the experience 
of perfect love by any who read or are influenced by 
them.* 

The same doctrine is involved in the modern substitu- 
tion of the word obtain for attain/^ in speaking of 
holiness. They say it is a thing to be o5tained^ instead 
of a^tained.^^ The difference is this : if we o6tain a thing, 
we get it all at once, as we obtain a book or a letter from 
the carrier; whereas the word ^^ai^tain^^ includes the idea 
of progress, or of reaching a thing by degrees. Hence, 
discarding the Wesleyan doctrine of degrees and of gradual 
sanctification, they very naturally discard the old Wesleyan 
nomenclature, and substitute obtain for attain in 
their teaching. 

St. Paul was content to say, ^^Not as though I had 
already attained'^ (Phil. iii. 12); and so with good John 
Fletcher, wdio wrote of "the maturity of grace and holi- 
ness, which established adult believers attain to (page 9). 
And so again (page 12): "If you would attain an evan- 
gelical perfection,^^ etc. Mr. Wesley constantly used the 
same term : "suppose one had attained this,^^ "when may 
a person judge himself to have attained this?'^ "If any 
dream of attaining it in any other way, yes, or of keeping 
it when it is attained,^ etc. — Plain Account, Worhs, vol. 
v., pp. 502, 504, 505. 

v. The Bible everyioliere enjoins geowth in geace, or 

* Upon tliis ]Doint also hear the venerable Samuel Dunn : " It is not 
correct to say that ' grace may increase in the soul without any de- 
crease of sin/ We can no more conceive of this than we can of an 
additional light in a room without a diminution of darkness. The 
introduction of grace necessarily involves the removal of sin. In pro- 
portion as grace strengthens, sin weakens. The perfection of the one 
is the destruction of the other.'^ — Speech, p. 132. 
3 ^ 



30 



NEW YORK PEEACHEPvS^ MEETING. 



GRADUAL SANCTIFICATION ; but nowlieve teaches, or even 
implies or intimates^ an instantaneous sanctification, except 
as it is preceded and reached by the gradual progress, 

St. Peter exhorts Christians to grow in grace, and in 
the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 
(2 Peter iii. 18) ; and again in his first Epistle : 

Wherefore, laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, 
and envies, and all evil speakings, as new-born babes, desire the 
sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby : if so be ye have 
tasted that the Lord is gracious. — Ch. ii. 1-3. 

And still again : 

And besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith, virtue ; and 
to virtue, knowledge ; and to knowledge, temperance ; and to temper- 
ance, patience ; and to patience, godliness ; and to godliness, brotherly 
kindness ; and to brotherly kindness, charity. For if these things be 
in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren 
nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, — 2 Peter i. 
5-8. 

Here we have progress in holiness step by step. St. 
Jude inculcated the same doctrine : 

But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, pray- 
ing in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking 
for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. — Verses 20, 21. 

And so^ also^ St. Paul : 

But speaking the truth in love, may groiv tip into him IK ALL things, 
which is the head, even Christ. — Eph. iv. 15. 

Surely growth in inward purity must be included 
among the ^^all things of this text, upon which Dr. 
Clarke remarks, He who has got a talent for the edifi- 
cation of only one of these classes [believers in various 
stages of growth] should not stay long in one place, else 
the whole body cannot grow up in all things under his 
ministry.'^ 



SPEECH OF H. MATTISO^sT, D. D. 



31 



The same experience of gradual sanctification, or in- 
creasing purity, is referred to in the passage : 

But TiQ all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the 
Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as 
by the Spirit of the Lord. — 2 Cor. j.ii. 18. 

" From glory to glory/^ from stage to stage, is the be- 
liever changed into the moral image of his God, as with 
open face/^ by faith, he beholds as in a glass the Divine 
glory. 

Now, while the Scriptures are thus explicit and full as 
to the importance of growth in grace or gradual sanctifi- 
cation, I know not of a solitary passage where they teach 
the doctrine of instantaneous sanctification, as now so 
much insisted upon by some, or even in the qualified 
sense, as tauglit by Mr. Wesley. The truth is, that Mr. 
Wesley never taught or countenanced the doctrine of 
sudden sanctification as now taught among us ; and even 
what he did teach he taught not as a doctrine revealed in 
the Scriptures, or as his own experience, but as what many 
told him tliey had experienced, and which he accepted 
and taught upon their authority. If they were ever 
wholly sanctified, however long they might be in attain- 
ing to that state, there must, of course, be a moment in 
which it was reached, and in that sense it was instantaneous 
as well as gradual. 

VI. John and Charles Wesley and Mr. Fletcher distinctly 
taught the identity of regeneration and entire sanctification 
AS ONE IN NATURE, and different only in degree ; and 
also the doctrine that sanctification is gradual froiU' con- 
version to entire sanctification. 

Hence John Wesley asks, ^^When does inward sancti- 
fication begin and answers, ^^In the moment we are 



32 



NEW YOEK PPvEACHEES' MEETING. 



justified. The seed of every virtue is then sown in the 
soul. From that time the believer gradually dies to sin, 
and grows in grace.^^ " When we begin to believe, then 
sanctification begins. And as faith increases, holiness in- 
creases, till we are created anew.^^ 
Take another extract : 

To waive several other weiglity objections which might be urged 
against that tract, this is a palpable one : It all along speaks of regenera- 
tion as a progressive work, carried on in the soul bv slow degrees, from 
the time of our first turning to God. This is undoubtedly thue of 
sanctification; but of regeneration, the new birth, it is not true. 
When we are born again, then our sanctification, our inward and out- 
ward holiness, begins; and thenceforward we are gradually to "grow up 
into Him who is our head.'' Tliis expression of the apostle admirably 
illustrates the difference between one and the other, and farther points 
out the exact analogy there is between natural and spiritual things. A 
child is born of a woman in a moment, or, at least, in a very short time ; 
afterward he gradually and slowly grows, till he attains to the stature 
of a man. In like manner, a child is born of God in a short time, if not 
in a moment. But it is by slow degrees that he afterward grovjs vp to the 
measure of the full stature of Christ. The same relation, therefore, 
which there is between our natural birth and our growth, there is also 
between our new birth and our sanctification. — Works, vol. i. pp. 
505, 506.* 

No language can be plainer than this ; and yet it in- 
culcates the very gradualism which some in our day 
contemn, and characterize as anti-scriptural and anti- 
Methodist ! 

Again, in describing the evidences of entire renewal, as 
drawn from experience, Mr. Wesley says : 

*Br. Boole, on the contrary, says, "^Gradualism' has no more place 
in seeking this blessing than in seeking justification." (Page 41). And 
so Br. Eoche, who ridiculed the doctrine, as it seems to me, in some 
parts of his speech says, " Gradualism is not sustained by the teaching 
of the highest authorities of Methodism." (P. 75). Are they not both 
pre-eminently Wesleyan ? 



SPEECH OF H. MATTISON, D. D. 



33 



If a man be deeply and fully convinced; after justification, of inbred 
sin ; if he then experiences a gradual mortification of sin, and afterward 
an entire renewal in the image of God," etc. 

In the next paragraph he asks a question^ and answers 
it thus : 

Q. Is this death to sin and renewal in love gradual or instantaneous ? 

A, A man may be dying for some time, yet he does not, properly 
speaking, die till the instant the soul is separated from the body ; and 
in that instant he lives the life of eternity. In like manner, he may be 
dying to sin for some time, yet he is not dead to sin till sin is separated 
from his soul ; and in that instant he lives the full life of love. — Plain 
Account J Works J vol. vi., p. 505. 

Again : 

" It is constantly preceeded and followed by a gradual work. ^ 
In some this change was not instantaneous. They did not perceive the 
instant when it was wrought. It is often difficult to perceive the instant 
when a man dies ; yet there is an instant in which life ceases. And if 
ever sin ceases, there must be a last moment of its existence, and a 
first moment of our deliverance from it." — Worlcs, vol. vi., p. 529. 

Such were Mr. Wesley's views of the relation of gradual 
sanctification to the instantaneous w^ork w^ien the soul 
reaches ^Hhe measure of the stature of the fullness of 
Christ/' ^ 

Eev. Samuel Dunn seems to endorse these verses when he says : " If 
sanctification is compared to the growth of corn, there is an instant 
when the corn is fully ripe in the ear ; if to the advancement of the 
human body from childhood, there is an instant when it arrives at its 
fall stature ; if to the light of the sun, there is an instant at which it 
shines m noontide splendor. ^ ^ There is an instant when sanctifi- 
cation commences ; an instant when every new supply of grace is re- 
ceived ; and an instant when such a measure is communicated as fills 
the soul, and consequently excludes every opposing principle and con- 
trary afiection. If we gradually go on unto perfection, there must be an 
instant when we reach it." — Sjpeechj p. 134. 

In noticing the pamphlet on " Perfect Love,'' Dr. Crary, of the 



34 



NEW YOEK PEEACIIEES' MEETIKG. 



Charles Wesley constantly inculcated the same doctrine 
in his inimitable hymns. Take the following stanzas as 
specimens : 

More of Thy life, and more I have, 

As the old Adam dies ; 
Bury me, Saviour, in Thy grave, 

That I with Thee may rise. 

Eeign in me. Lord ; thy foes control, 

Who would not own IThy sway ; 
Diffuse Thine image through my soul ; 

Shine to the perfect day. 

Scatter the last remains of sin. 

And seal me Thine abode ; 
Oh make me glorious all within, 

A temple built by God ! — Hymn 532. 

Again : 

Up into Thee, our living Head, 

Let us in all things grow. 
Till Thou hast made us free indeed. 

And spotless here below. 

Then, when the mighty work is wrought, 

Receive Thy ready bride ; 
Give us in heaven a happy lot, 

With all the sanctified. — Hymn 700. 

If these hymns do not inculcate the doctrine of growth 
in holiness, or gradual sanctification, I know not what 
poetry could teach it. 

The doctrine of gradual sanctification is distinctly taught 
in what Mr. Fletcher says about successive baptisms of 
the Spirit: 

Central Christian Advocate, says : Sanctification is instantaneous, just 
as death is ; though we approach it by tears and pains and mortal 
pangs, we at last die ; and though we receive grace, love God, have 
faith and ^ groan after^ perfect love, the time comes when we believe 
simply in Jesus and are saved." 



SPEECH OF H. MATTISON^ D. D. 



35 



Should you ask how many baptisms, or effusions of the sanctifying 
Spirit, are necessary to cleanse a believer from all sin, and to kindle 
his soul into perfect love, I reply, that the effect of a sanctifying truth 
depending upon the ardor of the faith with which that truth is em- 
braced, and upon the power of the Spirit with which it is applied, I 
should betray a want of modesty if I brought the operations of the 
Holy Ghost, and the energy of faith, under a rule which is not ex- 
pressly laid down in Scripture. If one powerful baptism of the Spirit 
seals you unto the day of redemption, and cleanses you from all moral 
filthiness, so much the better. If two or more are necessary, the Lord 
can repeat them. ^^His arm is not shortened that it cannot save,'^ 
nor is his promise of the Spirit stinted.— Treatise, p. 29. 

And so in another passage still more to the point : 

To deny that imperfect believers may and do gradually grow in 
grace, and of course that the remains of their sins may and do gradu- 
ally decay, is as absurd as to deny that God waters the earth by daily 
dews, as well as by thunder showers ; it is as ridiculous as to assert 
that nobody is carried off by lingering disorders, but that all men die 
suddenly, or a few hours after they are taken ill.— p. 47. 

I believe it, therefore, to be both a scriptural and a 
Wesleyan doctrine, and corroborated by the experience of 
all faithful Christians, that sanctification is first partial 
and gradual in all cases ; and that there is not and cannot 
be such a thing as instantaneous entire sanctification that 
is not first preceded by the gradual work. In the same 
degree, therefore, that we oppose, or disparage, or ignore 
gradual sanctification, we effectually hinder all sanctifica- 
tion ; while in the same measure that we teach and encou- 
rage and promote growth in grace, and build up the 
people instrumentally in the knowledge and love of God, 
we are most effectually promoting the experience of entire 
sanctification. 

^ And for any man to hope to be cleansed from all inbred 
gill before he has even learned to keep under his body 



36 



HEW YOEK PEEACHERS' MEETIKG. 



and bring it into subjection," or, in other words, has grace 
enouP-h in his soul to have the mastery over the remaining 
corruptions of his heart, is in my view a very great error. 
We must first be able to bind " the old man," at least, be- 
fore we can cast him out Avith all his pollutions. ^ ^ _ 
YII. groidh in grace, or gradual sanctification, ts 
essential to entire sanetifieation, the best means for promoting 
holiness are THE MEAN'S OE grace ordained by cheist, 
and everywhere recognized until recently as the memis oj 
spiritual progress and sanctification. 

" Sanctify them through Thy truth," prayed the Saviour 
(John xviii. 17), and so also St. Paul : 

Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it ; that he might- 
sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water hy the word, that he 
Height present it to himself a glorious Church, not havxng spot, or 
wrLkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and wUhout 
blemish.— Eph. v. 25-27. 

The word of God, then, is one of God's chosen instru- 
ments of sanctification. And so of all the means of grace 
as ministered in the Church by the divinely-appointed 
pastors and teachers, as St. Paul expressly teaches : 

And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, eyan- 
gelists ; and some, pastors and teachers ; for the perfecting of the saxnts, 
for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Chr.st; 
till we all come in the unity of the fiuth, and of the know edge of he 
Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the 
fullness of Christ.— Eph. iv. 11-13. 

Such is the object of all the means of grace, the "per- 
fecting of the saints," till we come '^'^unto the measure of 
the stature of the fullness of Christ." ^ 

It is to be feared that some greatly undervalue the 
divinely-instituted means of grace as the means of entire 
sanctification. Hence the various new expedients for the 



SPEECH OF H. MATTISON, D. D. 



37 



promotion of holiness. And because sanctifi cation in all 
its stages, and, indeed, the entire Christian life, is all by 
faith, some even go so far as to neglect the means of grace, 
under the idea that to use them, while sanctification is 
through faith, is a species of " legalism,^^ and incompatible 
v/ith the evangelical system. But such v/ere not the ideas 
of John Wesley. In his Plain Account he thus settles this 
point : 

Q. How are we to wait for this change ? 

A, Not in careless indifference, or indolent inactivity ; hut in vigor- 
ous, universal obedience, in a zealous keeping of all the command- 
ments, in watchfulness and painfulness, in denying ourselves, and 
taking up our cross daily ; as well as in earnest prayer and fasting, and 
a close attendance on all the ordinances of God. And if any man 
dream of attaining it in any other way (yea, or of keeping it when it 
is attained, when he has received it even in the largest measure), he 
deceiveth his own soul. It is true, we receive it by simple faith ; but 
God does not, will not, give that faith, unless we seek it with all dili- 
gence, in the way which he hath ordained. — Works, vol. vi. p. 505.^ 

VIII. We must guard our people against the error of 
supposing that mere consecration is the same as entire sancti- 
fication. 

Brother Woodruff. — ^^Do you mean to say that any- 
body teaches that consecration is the same as sanctifica- 
tion 

I have not affirmed anything upon that subject. 
Brother Woodruff. — ^^Vfell, but do you say that any 
one teaches that doctrine 

* This view is thus endorsed by Bev. Samuel Dunn : " Growth in 
sanctification is promoted by self-denial, mortifying the flesh, watchful- 
ness and prayer, hearing and reading the word of God ; and by listen- 
ing to the dictates, yielding to the influences, and by nourishing, 
cultivating, and exercising the graces of the Holy Spirit." — Speech, 
p. 132. 
4 



38 



NEW YORK PEEACHEES' MEETING. 



I do not now affirm anything. I simply say, DonH teach 
that error, and warn all our people against it. Consecra-- 
tion is our own act^ and may be followed by sanctification 
or not, according to circumstances. But sanctification is 
the work of God, wrought in us by the Holy Spirit ; and 
to mistake the one for the other, as it is to be feared that 
many have done, and profess entire sanctification when 
we have merely consecrated or devoted ourselves to God 
— laid all upon the altar," as some phrase it — is to de- 
ceive our own souls, and make profession of a state of 
grace to which we are strangers. I believe in consecrating 
ourselves to God, and I care not how often or formally, 
or how much in detail. I have practised it for years, and 
I trust to my spiritual profit. And I know of no hymns 
in all the language that I like better than the one con- 
taining the verse — 

Here, at that cross where flows the blood 

That bought my guilty soul for God, 

Thee, my new Master, now I call, 

And CONSECRATE TO THEE MY ALL. — Hymn 804. 

Leaving all other questions in regard to the instantane- 
ous work, the evidences of its attainment, profession, etc., 
I have thus indicated a few things which I deem of the 
first importance in considering how we may best promote 
the experience of perfect love among our people. 

Note. — This speech was delivered before the idea of publishing in 
any form was thought of ; and, as a presentation of the Author's views 
upon the entire subject, is of course defective. It was designed to 
show, not as some have alleged, that there is no such thing as instan- 
taneous sanctification, but that there is and must be a work of gradual 
sanctification also, going before the instantaneous work. Upon the 
subject of the means, process, evidences and profession of Christian per- 
fection, we purpose to speak ere long in a more comprehensive and 
complete treatise. 



III. 



SPEECH OF DANIEL CURRY, D. D. 

MAKCH 11, 1867. 

T AGREE with those who think the question before us 
one that ought to be examined. It is not creditable to 
us that the voice of the Methodist pulpit should either be 
silent, or give an uncertain sound, upon so important a 
subject. And yet it must be confessed that to a large 
extent we have either avoided the subject, or discussed it 
cautiously and apologetically, or w^e have asserted it 
defiantly. And we are constrained to believe that upon 
scarcely any other point are the minds of our people so 
little established; and further, that this indefiniteness of 
conviction upon the subject is productive of much harm. 

The subject is not a new one in our Church, nor is it pe- 
culiar to Methodism. As a practical and experimental 
doctrine it certainly is as old as Christianity itself, and its 
misapprehensions and abuses are nearly as old. Traces 
of its misuse may be found in the apostolical Epistles. 
Church history is full of them: Molinos and the Mystics; 
Madam Guion and the Quietists; Francke and the Piet- 
ists; Count Zinzendorf and the Moravians, all present 
both its excellences and its abuses. 

It was among the glories of the "VYesleyan revival, and 
yet it there developed some of its worst features, as every 
student of early Methodist literature is aware. It must 

39 



40 



NEW YOEK PREACHEES' MEETING. 



be granted that the doctrine of the higher Christiaii 
life^^ is inseparable from the Gospel system^ and its 
experience is the perpetual outgrowth of vital religion. 
Every minister of the Gospel must^ therefore^ deal v/ith 
it. He should be able to teach it, to cruard a2:ainst its 
abuses, and to lead his people to its enjoyment. If this 
is not the case, there will be danger of a dead formalism 
on one side, and of a pernicious enthusiasm on the other. 

Our own Church is a standing illustration of all these 
points. We have been, and continue to be, greatly en- 
ricJied by its experience. We are damaged by its misuse, 
and we suffer loss by lack of attention to it. It is time 
our ministers should fully understand it, that they may 
know its povN^er and teach it to the people, and guard it 
from misuse. Our chief ministers — those whose positions 
give authority to their utterances — should clearly define 
their own positions, and earnestly impress upon the 
Church the privileges and duties of believers. We pro- 
pose, before attempting to answer the question at issue, to 
point out some of the disadvantages and infelicities of the 
subject, as it stands before the Methodist community: 

1. Its nomenclature has been the occasion of misapprcr 
hensions and unprofitable discussions. In the proposition 
before us the work of grace in question is called ^^perfec 
love.^^ We make no other objection to this than that i 
only partially describes the subject. Perfect love i 
indeed a characteristic of a matured Christian experience 
and so is perfect faith, perfect peace, perfect hope, or an 
other Christian grace perfected. Hence the phras 
Christian perfection is much more comprehensivel 
descriptive, and yet it is objectionable, because it may b 
understood in an absolute sense. Christian perfection i 



SPEECH OF DANIEL CUEKY, D. D. 



41 



itself the characteristic of a very imperfect being; and by 
well-authorized usages of language it may be predicated 
of Christians yet far from the highest possibilities of re- 
ligious experience. Again^ the words ^^holy^^ and holi- 
ness'^ are applied to this grace, with the implication that 
only matured Christians are holy or have attained to 
holiness. We do not condemn anybody for the use of 
these terms, but we cannot avoid the conviction that much 
harm has come from their ill-understood use. We believe 
that the phrase Christian perfection is really the most 
correct, and yet to many minds it is objectionable. Chris-- 
tian maturity is its synonym, and perhaps less liable to 
misconstruction; and the phrase ^^the higher Christian 
life'' specifically designates those stages and phenomena 
of experimental religion that pertain to a state of Chris- 
tian maturity. 

2. Because of its subjective and emotional character it 
is liable to be misunderstood by its subject, and also to 
mislead him. The work of the Holy Spirit is directly 
known only by the individual. It is a matter of self- 
consciousness, of inward spiritual demonstration. This is 
its excellence and glory ; it is also an occasion of danger. 
By virtue of it the humble soul rests in the assurance of 
faith; and by pretending to it the vain and self-confident 
and self-opinionated become spiritually proud and vainly 
pretentious, to the discredit of their profession. Against 
these liabilities the word of God and the voice of religious 
instruction, operating with self-distrust and great humil- 
ity, are the necessary safeguards. 

3. An opposite difiiculty arises from the resistance of 
the natural heart to vital religion. This tendency is 
actively operative as long as the motions of indwelling sin 

4 



4-2 



NEW YOEK PEEACHEES' MEETING. 



are 



felt. Truly converted men, living in the enjoyment 
of the peace of God and seeking to grow in grace, still 
find in themselves a repugnance to religious attainments 
beyond their own. There is a conflict in their own hearts. 
" The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against 
the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other." 
By reason of this repugnance, there is found in good men, 
genuine Christians, a tendency to take exceptions to the 
further demands of the Spirit, and an adverse prejudice 
toward " the higher Christian life." It is not only in the 
first great conquest of the soul, when the will surrenders 
to Christ, that there is a warfare and a victory achieved 
in the soul. Step by step the "old man" yields the 
ground, and in as far as he holds his ground there is a 
temptation, too often entertained if not yielded to, to 
resist the progress of the conquering and sanctifying 
Spirit in us. 

4. A great infelicity of this work has been the unskill- 
fdness of its advocates and promoters in presenting it. 
There is much force in John Foster's objections to the 
prevailing style of presenting religious themes to edu- 
cated minds. Those objections apply not only as to 
educated persons, but to many others who are prejudiced 
by that unfelicitous manner; and this remark, while it 
applies generally to our religious teaching, is true as to 
this especially. The subject of advanced religious life 
lies out of the range of thought of men generally, and 
therefore its terminology is but partially understood by 
them. A special dialect should be avoided as far as pos- 
sible. Neglect of this caution has given rise to a religious 
eant. (I use the term not in any sense implying insin- 
cerity.) It is the easiest thing in the world to fall into 



SPEECH OF DANIEL CUEBY, D. D. 



43 



the use of words without definite meaning — to repeat cer- 
tain words and phrase without any certain sense. I 
think our teaching of the high forms of religious expe- 
rience has suffered much from this cause. This evil is 
greatly intensified when it is accompanied by a mannerism 
of tones^ and methods of utterance, and unmeaning and 
unnecessary peculiarities. Naturalness is of incalculable 
worth in our religious communications. 

Its segregation from the common religion of the Church 
has been of most perniciously evil consequences. By 
making it a class religion, all not of the special class feel 
themselves exonerated from its demands. As, in the 
Church of Rome, there is one style of religion for the 
religieiise (monks and nuns), and another style for secular 
persons — that is, the common people — so, when the higher 
religious life is predicated of a special class, all others 
are content to mark out for themselves a lower. 

By overstraining words and texts of Scripture it has 
been damaged. The word j)erfection is often used in 
Scripture to indicate much else than the higher degrees 
of religious growth, and yet it is often laid hold of as 
proving, directly and necessarily, this doctrine. Sancti- 
fication^^ is used in the Bible to indicate the character and 
■ condition of Christians of all degrees of religious attain- 
ments, and even of all men, unconverted and converted 
alike, because all are sanctified unto God by the redemp- 
tion of Christ ; but how often do we hear it used as im- 
plying only the highest attainments ! The terms " holy 
and holiness'^ are in the same way wrested from their 
general use and application, and forced into another and 
narrower though higher sense. These are specimen cases 
of the unskillful use of Scripture in these things, by which 



44 



NEW YOEK preachers' MEETING. 



the subject is prejudiced in many sincere thougli not 
well-instructed minds. 

Treating of this stage of grace as a necessary condition 
to salvation has done harm. I once listened to a sermon 
from an able and most excellent brother on the text, " It 
is the will of God, even your sanetification.^^ This last 
word was assumed to mean what we in this question call 

perfect love/^ which it is said that it is the will of God 
all Christians should come to. If, it was next argued, 
that is the will of God, and we do not conform to it, we 
are living in sin voluntarily, and of course for such there 
can be no salvation. Such reasoning may be logical, after 
a sort, but it is not scriptural, nor can its use fail to be of 
evil effect. Again, persons are sometimes heard exhorting 
to holiness,'^ and praying for it — using that word in its 
specific sense — and recognizing it as essential to salvation 
by quoting the accommodated text, Without holiness noj 
man shall see the Lord.^^ Here a legal salvation iJ 
taught ; another condition than faith is presented, an(r 
other grounds of acceptance than the forgiveness of sins. 
All such teaching is as damaging as it is incorrect. 

5. The lives of some of the professors of this state have 
failed to honor it. This point must be touched tenderly. 
It is granted, nay, earnestly asserted, that some of the 
brightest examples of Christian consistency have been of 
those who professed this blessing, and evidently walked 
in its enjoyment. But since the religion of Christ is 
known among unconverted men almost exclusively by the 
lives of its professors, so the peculiar excellences of what 
purports to be the higher Christian life are estimated, by 
such as have not attained to these things, by the lives of 
those who profess to have them. The rule itself ic a cor- 



SPEECH OF DANIEL CUERY, D. B. 



45 



rect one^ though doubtless it is often uncharitably applied. 
Where there is a high profession^ there should be a corres- 
ponding exhibition of the graces of the gospel. Practically, 
this should teach us caution as to the professions we make; 
and also constrain all who have felt called to glorify God 
by making it, to be very careful not to dishonor him in 
what they profess. If there appear a sj^irit of arrogance 
and self-exaltation ; if any lack of humility, of charitable- 
ness, of meekness and long-suffering; if fretfulness and 
censoriousness, that which is sometimes inconsiderately 
called sour godliness,^^ show themselves in the professors 
of this grace, then is Christ wounded in the house of his 
friends. Without asserting it, the question may be asked, 
Is he not so wounded ? 

If it is found that the professors of this grace, as a class, 
are not the most reliable members of the Church, to sus- 
tain its various interests, and to carry forward its work — 
attending diligently the appointed ordinances of God^s 
house — reverencing and sustaining the minister, even 
though he cannot pronounce their sliihholeth, and receiving 
his godly admonitions in the fear of the Lord, then is 
their profession dishonored, and humble, self-distrusting 
souls become afraid of such professions. If it is seen that, 
under the guise of enlarged Christian liberty, certain 
kinds of religious duties are neglected, and others per- 
formed slightingly; and at the other extreme certain 
indulgences allowed which are reckoned dangerous by the 
scrupulous, and especially if there occur now and then 
scandalous fallings away through such liberties and in- 
dulgences, then is the profession of this grace dishonored. 

These are some of the infelicities, dangers, and dis- 
advantages under w^hich the doctrine of perfect love^^ 



46 



YOEK PREACHEES^ MEETING 



labors. They are perhaps inseparable from it, by reason 
of the weaknesses, and foibles, and liabilities to errors and 
to sin of even the best of men. But they present no 
argument against the thing itself ; nor do they afford any 
reasons for avoiding the subject in our ministrations, but 
rather the contrary. 

Having presented these infelicities of the subject, it may 
be proper next to consider the nature and phenomena of 
the thing spoken of. The question assumes the reality of 
such a form of religious experience, and surely it will n: 
be denied nor called in question here. Still it may b 
needful for us to set the subject directly before our minds 
and hearts, that we may the better understand ourselves 
and one another while speaking of it. The Scriptur 
very clearly teach that it is the design of the Gospel 
raise its subjects to a high and holy state of Christia 
experience. It is equally evident that the calling of Go 
is to all men, to receive a common salvation, that there i 
only one kind of inward religion, and that that is f 
privilege and the duty of all alike. Everywhere t 
Scriptures call us to religious growth, and point to a sta 
of Christian maturity — manhood — ripeness, as not only a 
ideal and a potentiality, but also as something attainabl 
by all. This is indeed, the proper and legitimate sense 
of the New Testament word perfection.^^ 

Christian life is the same in kind in all its stages. Its 
phenomena quite naturally change with its ever-changing 
stages, as it advances from its birth to its maturity. But 
of all true Christians, at whatever stages of the religious 
life they may be, may be predicated the term holy,^^ and 
all of them are going on to perfection.^^ Religious 
growth, which is the normal condition of all Christians^ 



SPEECH OF DANIEL CUERY^ D. D. 



47 



is twofold. It proceeds negatively by the suppression and 
uprooting of the " carnal mind/^ or innate and indwelling 
Bin ; and positively by the increase and full development 
of the graces of the Spirit^ imparted to the soul in re- 
generation. 

All this assumes certain important^ though sometimes 
disputed, points of dogmatic theology. It assumes the 
doctrine of original sin, of sin as something real and be- 
yond mere volitions and actions ; and this evil condition 
of the soul it assumes to be inborn and inherent in man's 
nature, and therefore to be taken away by regenerating 
and sanctifying power. Further, it is evidently the de- 
sign of the great Author of our salvation that this tvv^o- 
fold work shall advance simultaneously, and with corre- 
sponding rapidity. The work of putting away the filthi- 
ness of the flesh,'' of putting off the old man and his 
deeds," of " nailing our sins to the cross,'' is but the gra- 
cious process of overcoming and getting rid of the natural 
proclivity of the soul to sin, and its attendant blindness 
and deadness to spiritual things. This also implies that 
this carnal uiind" survives the work of regeneration, 
and is often actively rebellious in the hearts of real 
Christians. One great department of religious progress 
lies in this direction. It is the crucifixion of the flesh." 
It is SELF-denial, the cutting off* of right-hand sins, and 
the plucking out of right-eye lusts ; till, with all selfishness 
eliminated by grace, Christ and the Spirit reign in the 
redeemed soul. 

As to the divine method of this work, it is very evi- 
dent that as a general rule it must be gradually pro- 
gressive. It need not be denied that there may have been 
cases in which the completion of this work has been 



48 



NEW YORK preachers' MEETING. 



simultaneous and identical with the work of conversion* 
But if such cases have been^ they are exceptional, and do 
not affect the general law of the economy of grace. "Its 
degrees will be more or less rapid according to various 
conditions of religious culture and influences, and espe- 
cially of personal Christian fidelity. Perhaps, too, they 
are varied by that divine discrimination according to 
which God gives his grace, to some more and to some 
less. 

This religious progress has also its marked stages and 
its memorable crises, each attended with its appropriate 
phenomena. Let us consider a not unusual example. 
The work of conversion, if it be thorough and clear, 
brings great peace to the soul, which often rises into joy, 
and is attended with an assured hope and a gracious access 
to God in prayer. This condition of the soul may con- 
tinue for weeks or months, or even years. There are 
temptations, but these are uniformly overcome ; there are 
seasons of perplexities, but faith triumphs in them all, and 
the hope of the gospel is like an anchor to the soul. 
Through great diligence, watching and praying, all con- 
scious outward sin is avoided, and the souFs peace in God 
becomes profound and steadfast. But at length a new 
occasion for disquiet arises. The purified spiritual vision , 
discovers a great depth of iniquity within ; and the quick- 
ened and tender conscience is convicted of and pained 
by deep, inwrought pollution. Hence arises a godly 
sorrow, not as of condemnation and dread of God's wrath, 
but of self-abhorrence in view of the infinite purity of the 
Divine nature. Then the enlightened soul cries ^^out of 
the depths'' for deliverance, and groans from its deep-felt 
wants, Oh that my load of sin were gone and looking 



SPEECH OF DAIsIEL CUEKY, D. D. 



49 



up to the only source of help, prays, "Break off this yoke 
of inbred sin," and there is deliverance from this sorrow. 
Self-distrusting and self-renouncing before, the soul now 
becomes self-abhorring, and turning away from self, it 
looks by simple faith— a faith that recognizes Christ's all- 
sufficiency, and which therefore seeks no kind nor degree 
of self-sufficiency— a faith wrought in the soul by the 
Holy Spirit— and asks to be made clean. And according 
to that faith the work is done. A holy joy, a divine 
peace, a heavenly assurance, a rest in God ensues. This 
is no fancy picture ; millions have attested its reality, and 
a great cloud of witnesses can attest it now as a thing of 
personal experience. 

Now we must inquire. What is the condition, as to in- 
dwelling sin, into which the soul is thus brought? Is it, 
or is it not, an absolute destruction and extirpation of the 
" carnal mind ?" I am aware that many will be ready to 
answer this question by an unqualified yes, and will claim 
that no other answer is compatible with the plain teach- 
ings of Methodist theology. Let us not be hasty at this 
point. We doubt not that many isolated expressions may 
be found in Methodist literature that would sustain that 
answer; we are also very sure that the best Methodist 
authorities— John Wesley and Watson— treat that ques- 
tion very cautiously ; and the former directly declares that 
he had never taught the doctrine of the possibility of a 
sirdess perfection. We incline to believe, however, that, 
when carefully and understandingly examined, the ques- 
tion will be found to be one respecting the meaning of 
words, rather than of the substance of things. Let me 
define the terms "sin" and "purity," and I can answer 
the question by either a yes or a no, according as more 

5 



50 



KEW YORK PEEACHERS' MEETING. 



or less shall be included by them. It is certain^ however, 
that at such a crisis a mighty and thorough victory is 
achieved ; that indwelling sin, if not absolutely cast out, 
is most effectually bruised under the feet of the incoming 
Conqueror ; and as to all this. Scripture and experience 
coincide : may it not be added, beyond this both are 
silent ? 

If, then, the Scriptures do not fully settle this question 
in advance, may it not be settled as a question of facts ? 
Is there not some way in which the individual may 
certainly know the state of his heart as to this point? 
There are three sources of self-knowledge that may be 
consulted in this case — consciousness, experience, and 
Divine assurance. Consciousness takes notice of the souFs 
processes, but the range of its observance does not extend 
to the quiescent states of the soul. Whether, therefore, 
the carnal mind be subdued into inaction or utterly extir- 
pated, consciousness cannot answer, because the subject is 
out of its range. And even should some of the motions 
of sin very softly show themselves in their thick disguises, 
it is not certain that the power of introspection would in- 
fallibly detect them. Nearly the same remarks will apply 
to the reports of experience. It is no certain evidence 
that there is no indwelling sin in the soul, because its 
motions have not been felt for a given season, short or 
long. As to the evidence of Divine assurance, while we 
hold to and glory in the doctrine of the witness of the. 
Spirit, we do not see how, in its usual methods, it can bear 
any testimony upon this subject. It bears witness to our- 
acceptance by creating our peace and raising our hopes 
God. It testifies to our sonship by giving us the fili 
spirit, the spirit of adoption,^^ from which we infer (b 



SPEECH OF DANIEL CURRY, D. D. 



51 



a logical process) our heirship through Christ. But in 
none of these is there the direct communication of any 
direct intellectual proposition to the understanding, as 
there must be in order that the fact of personal sinless- 
ness shall be assured. And if the individual himself can- 
not certainly determine this question, much less can 
another determine it for him. We must, therefore, leave 
the question of the absolute extirpation of the carnal 
mind,^^ as an accomplished fact in any given case, an open 
one, believing that no real good would be effected by its 
solution. But it is assuredly our privilege to know that 
the most complete victory may be achieved and main- 
tained; and by divinely begotten hope its glorious con- 
summation is assured to the faithful. 

We come next to consider the positive side of this great 
work. It is called growing in grace,^^ growing up 
into Christ,^^ being renewed in the image of Gocl,'^ etc. 
Such expressions, though probably often vaguely used, 
embody a correct notion of the subject. And first, it 
should be noticed that they express a gradual process. As 
on the negative side, so here, vital religion is a growth, 
having stages and increase. But gradually is not the 
same with slowly; the most rapid flight is as really 
gradual as the slowest and most painful crawling. This 
work, in its advanced stages, includes these three things : 

First. Profound and clear conviction of the truth ; of 
God ; of spiritual being ; of sin ; of holiness ; of Christ and 
the cross ; of the Holy Spirit and his mission ; and of 
eternal judgment. These great truths enter into the soul 
by faith, and as objective verities they are clearly appre- 
hended, because of the spiritual quickening and enlighten- 
ment of the soul ; and that which thus comes to us by 



52 



NEW YOEK PHEACHEES^ MEETING. 



grace, becomes in us also a mighty means of grace. We are 
sanctified by the truth so received and inwrought. The 
entering in of God's vvord brings life and light and trans- 
forming povv^er. He that has received this grace " walks 
in the light/^ and in so doing he continually experiences 
the saving grace of the gospel. 

Secondly, Religious growth operates by stirring up and 
streno:theninp: the emotional and affectional natures, and 
fixing them on God. All the affections of the heart — its 
loves and hates, its hopes and fears, its joys and sorrows — 
all flow out in obedience to God^s will, and in harmony 
with His essential nature. 

The Divine person becomes the central object of the 
souFs affection ; the Divine attributes the things in which 
the soul delights ; and wherever the Divine goodness goes 
out in its missions of grace the sanctified affections joy- 
fully follow. So eminent a part does love act in all this 
work that it has come to be named as the whole of reli- 
gion. But it is not alone ; for there are hope and faith, 
and holy fear and joyful obedience, all impelled by the 
same heavenly impulse. 

Thirdly, The religious state of the soul includes a true 
direction and intense exaltation of the devotional element 
of man's nature. The religious element in human charac- 
ter is as evident and as real as either the intellectual or 
the affectional, and of course it enters directly into all that 
pertains to the religious life. Its first attitude before God 
is that of toorshipj implying the knowledge and the love 
of God in the soul, and the lifting up of the spirit in de- 
vout admiration, wonder, love, and i)i*aise. This is the 
occupation of angels, cherubim and seraphim ; and it shall 
be the bliss of the spirits of just men made perfect. So^ 



SPEECH OF DANIEL CURBY, D. D. 



53 



too, the feeblest faltering child of grace has his part in it, 
and adds his faint but not unappreciated notes to the uni- 
versal hallelujah. Worship also becomes a means of grace 
to the soul, leading directly to a holy consecration to God 
by the gravitating power of essential goodness perceived 
and appreciated — a consecration not merely of the voli- 
tions and the outward actions, but more eminently of the 
all-controlling affections. "Worship still further becomes 
a means of grace, because in it the soul is assimilated to 
God, and actually made a partaker of His communicable 
moral attributes. As the opening flowers drink in the 
rays of the sun, and are quickened and beautified by them, 
so the susceptible spirit, standing in the open vision of the 
Almighty in holy worship, is ^^transformed into the same 
image from glory unto glory.^^ Such is the attitude, such 
the gracious position of renewed souls before God ; not 
merely of John on Patmos, or Paul caught up into the 
third heavens, but of humble, faithful men and women 
going out and in before their generations, yet walking with 
God, and having their lives hid with Christ in God. 

Consider now the state of the soul wdiose experience 
and attainments are here set before us. The body of 
sin is destroyed,^^ Satan is bruised in him. The 
intellect, quickened and instructed in the deep things of 
God, profoundly and lovingly believes all the truth as it is 
in J esus. The affections, awakened from the torpor induced 
by sin, are now thoroughly aroused, and turned powerfully 
toward God and holiness. The religious elements of the 
character are moved, strengthened, exalted, and fixed on 
God by the gravitation of inwrought holiness, godliheness. 
This is the Christianas calling. This, attained, is the 

higher Christian life,^^ Christian perfection,^^ perfect 

6«- 



54 



KEW YORK preachers' MEETING. 



love/' It is a work limited in its possibilities only by 
the limits set by God upon man's nature and by His own 
purposes of grace. 

We come now to respond more directly to the question 
before us : " How may we promote the experience of per- 
fect love among our people Perhaps nothing is more 
important in such a case than to look to our own religious 
condition in respect to our adaptation to the work of 
Christian edification. The action of undesigned and un- 
conscious influences cannot be disregarded in such a case. 
By a law of our nature all minds tend to assimilate other 
minds to their characters and moral conditions^ and the 
master minds silently but effectively govern those about 
them. A minister is, by virtue of his position, an effective 
model and standard in personal religion for his people, and 
by all the force of his character, acting from his advan- 
tageous position, he tends to draw them to his own religious 
level. If his religious status is relatively a low one, he 
will hinder rather than help those who would press on 
toward higher attainments ; if it is a high one, he will in- 
sensibly but certainly draw them upv\^ard also. 

All this may be said of the silent and non-volitional 
action of religious character ; but there is much more for 
ministers to do besides acting thus incidentally upon their 
people. Much must be done by direct and earnest efforts, 
for which, as to both the requisite zeal and skill, nothing 
else is so useful as deep piety and mighty power vath God. 
In the warfare to which Christ's ministers are called the 
most effective weapons are needed, and these must be ob- 
tained by each one personally from the celestial armory, 
and by each one must be burnished by prayer and holy 
communings with the Divine Spirit. Therefore, among 



SPEECH OF DANIEL CUKRY, D. D. 



55 



the means necessary to make a minister successful in pro- 
moting a liigh grade of religious experience among his 
people, is to be reckoned as foremost the attainment and 
exemplification of such grace and devotion in his own ex • 
* perience and life. 

But important as personal religious experience is, in 
this work it is not alone sufficient, for many devout 
ministers have been unskillful workmen and relatively 
ineffective. The manner and substance of his preaching 
is of very great importance. And here it should be ob- 
served that good preaching is about alike useful for all 
grades of Christians. As a rule, the same methods that 
are employed for general religious culture should be relied 
on to bring the people to the higher forms of Christian 
experience. Hence, to bring our hearers upward in 
experience, we should preach to them the gospel, the whole 
gospel, and nothing more. Clear statements should be 
made of the scriptural way of salvation — the one salvation 
and the one way ; and the word, so preached in faith, 
will not fail of its results. 

But more definitely : The skillful and effective minister 
of the gospel employs the living truths of revelation as 
the direct means by which to lead men to the experience 
of the highest gifts of religion. By stating and restating 
the mighty truths revealed in the Bible, he must seek to 
save the souls committed to him and to lead his flock 
into rich spiritual pastures. He must tell them of God — 
His absolute being and eternity ; His power, dominion, and 
glory ; H is intense and awful purity ; His immutable right- 
eousness and truth ; the certainty and the terribleness of 
His law. The presentation of such themes can scarcely 
fail to exercise directly and naturally a most wholeson^ 



56 NEW YORK PREACHEES^ MEETINO. 

moral influence upon the popular mind, \vliile they lay a, 
broad and firm foundation upon which to build up an ex- 
perimental and practical system of religious culture and 
discipline. He must also delineate to them the nature 
and the enormity of Sin, and show its essential inbeing in 
the fallen soul ; its antagonism toward God and flagrant 
rebellion against His authority ; its guilt and infinite ill- 
desert ; its loathsomeness. And as these are the demon- 
strated properties of sin^ and sin is shown to be the 
distinctive characteristic of the iinregenerate soul, men's 
own enmity against God, their guilt and moral loathsome- 
ness are thus demonstrated, that every mouth may be 
stopped, and all the world adjudged guilty before God.'' 
And then how terrible does this being guilty before God 
appear ! If He is, indeed, the Judge of all men, if His 
righteousness is immutable, and His holiness a consuming 
fire, how certain and ineffable must be the curse that God 
will visit upon sinners ! Conviction of sin, thus wrought 
in the soul by the Divine word and the energy of the 
Holy Spirit, is most wholesome, and, as nothing else can 
do it, it prepares the soul to accept the saving provisions 
of the gospel. 

Thus far all will be only the exhibition of God's majesty 
and holiness, and man's utter and hopeless ruin through 
sin. Just here, then, Christ must be preached; His person, 
the God-man; His ordination by the Father to be man's 
Redeemer ; His work of sacrifice, and His expiatory offer- 
ing of Himself for sin ; His finished atonement, and His 
everlasting priesthood. Thus presented, Christ will in- 
deed appear able to save to the uttermost all them that 
come unto God by Him." Thus will the broken and fear- 
ful spirit, bruised and contrite, find room for hope, since 



SPEECH OF DANIEL CUEBY, D. D. 



57 



he now sees God in Christ reconciling the world to Him- 
self. 

Here too must the minister of Christ show the way of 
salvation by faith — that faith which is also the gift of God, 
a divine illumination, the substance of things hoped for, 
and the evidence of things not seen the faith in which 
the sinner believes God^s promises, accepts Christ as a 
perfect Saviour, rests in Him and is saved. This is the 
faith in which the whole family of God is one ; and that 
Ave are justified by this faith alone, is a wholesome doc- 
trine, and very full of comfort.^^ The plain, pointed, and 
earnest preaching of these sacred and glorious truths is 
God's great agency for the sanctification of His people. In 
proportion as we so preach them shall we lead our people 
to the higher Christian life, and beyond these all means 
and appliances should be used cautiously, distrustfully, 
and in strict subordination to their spirit and require- 
ments. 

Just here some may ask. What say you about the 
" second blessing — of sanctification as a definite and dis- 
tinct experience and religious estate? I hold that there 
is but one kind of religious life, though that one has its 
various stages, crises, and phenomena. The conversion 
of the soul is not only the first state of the religious life ; 
it is also a work that has no duplicate nor analogue. 
Conversion is getting out of self into God; all after 
Christian life is but growing up in God. Conversion is 
an entire change of base ; all after life is but fighting it 
out on that line. Yet there are marked stages in spiritual 
growth, some of which, from the nature of the case, 
can occur but once, while others may be repeated ; and 
these are often attended with memorable spiritual exercises. 



58 



NEW YOBK preachers' MEETING. 



These, too, in their results are noteworthy, as mighty 
victories gained and great spoils taken ; great deliverances 
achieved and glorious privileges secured. And beyond 
these what can the late hungering and thirsting but now 
satisfied soul require ? To all such the Lord is a satisfy- 
ing portion. 

It is a matter of the highest practical importance in this 
%vork that we teach our people, and constantly impress 
upon them, the attainableness of a high standard of 
Christian experience. Though w^e may not require the 
same definite and uniform style of spiritual exercises of 
all, yet it should be constantly reiterated that all Christians 
are called to grow up into Christ in all things. All should 
be stimulated to strive for the deep things of God, not as 
a specialty, but as an integral part of the religion they 
profess. A high standard of scriptural holiness should be 
set up in every church, in every Christian family, in 
every heart. To this the pastor should call his people, 
always and earnestly, as the common privilege and calling 
of all believers. 

These considerations further suggest that care should 
be used that this form of experience should not be singled 
out as something exceptional. Though making it a dis- 
tinct object of pursuit may incite some the more decidedly 
to seek it, doing so will be accepted by the most as an 
excuse for neglecting it. Our people know that while 
they are living in the enjoyment of religion they are in a 
good spiritual estate, though reckoned not to have taken 
all the higher degrees; so that with that conviction, together 
with their natural repugnance to yet untried religious 
attainments, elsewhere noticed, they will generally with- 
hold themselves from earnest efforts for the higher forms 



SPEECH OF DANIEL CUREY, D. D. 



59 



of religious experience. I am painfully impressed with 
the conviction that the existing anomalous and damaging 
attitute of our Church respecting this subject is the result 
of this more than of any other single cause. So long as 
" sanctification is singled out as a distinct and exceptional 
religious state, above and beyond justification/^ and not 
necessary to j)i^esent acceptance and final salvation, the 
former will be sought by only the fevf ; the many, even 
among real Christians, will practically content themselves 
in the lower degree. It is therefore a question to be con- 
sidered very carefully, whether special exercises for the 
promotion of that form of experience are expedient, and 
ministers should be cautious as to making or permitting 
to be recognized any such a classification among their 
people. Let all be earnestly exhorted to " go on to per- 
fection,^^ to leave the things that are behind, and reach 
for the things that are before f and as it is not often useful 
to inform a seeker that he is converted, so it need be no 
care with us to have our members very accurately informed 
as to what particular stage of the Christian life they have 
attained to — what milestone along the King's highway 
they have passed. We may even suspect that these mile- 
stones are not always reliable, not having been set up by 
the King's orders. 

Finally, may I venture a few practical suggestions to 
my honored brethren in the holy work of the ministry? 
The infinite importance of whatever relates to vital reli- 
gion will justify our most earnest and devout inquiry into 
every particular connected with its promotion. It never 
should be forgotten by us that, valuable and precious as 
is a state of high religious interest in a church, it is also, 
in nearly every instance, attended with peculiar and great 



60 NEW YORK PKEACHEES' MEETING. 



dangers. When the Adversary can no longer suppress 
the zeal of God^s people^ he seeks to run it into enthusiasm 
— to change religion into fanaticism, and to substitute 
animal excitements for the impulses of the Spirit. Against 
these should ministers especially be on their guard. Make 
no account of physical excitements, except to moderate or 
suppress them. Refuse to hear anything of special im- 
pressions, or quasi revelations, whether waking or sleep- 
ing ; and avoid all recognition of the professors of the 
second blessing as especially noticeable. 

As to the practice of inviting Christians to present 
themselves as seekers of sanctification, while I would treat 
the subject tenderly, I cannot but express my conviction 
that the doing so, as practised among us, is productive of 
more harm than good. So presenting one^s self is the 
making a solemn vow of consecration to God ; and vows 
are fearful things. I do not say they are unlawful, but 
quite the contrary ; yet if made otherwise than with the 
deepest and most thorough movings of the depths of the 
soul, they will certainly prove a snare, and an occasion of 
temptation. To come to the altar for prayers by way of 
experiment, and with an indefinite and faint hope that 
some good may come of it, is something worse than a 
solemn trifling. 

May God, with whom are the treasures of wisdom and 
knowledge, give wisdom to His ministers in this sacred 
yet perilous part of their work ; and may the abundant 
blessings of the undivided Trinity rest upon the churclies 
and all the saints ! Amen, 



IV. 



ADDRESS OF REV. S. D. BROWN. 



I HE course pursued in this discussion is to my mind 



perfectly legitimate. It is necessary to understand 
the nature of this perfect love/^ and the means of its 
attainment^ before we are prepared to secure it for our- 
selves, or promote its experienced^ among others. 

Adopting the definition which has been given on this 
floor, and assuming that it is the maturity of Christian 
character, the perfection of the Christian graces/^ the few 
remarks I shall make will be directed to the second point. 



With reference to the means and conditions by which 
it may be attained, two distinct views have been here ex- 
pressed. One is, that sanctification is a work of the Holy 
Ghost, wrought in the heart instantaneously and upon 
the simple condition of faith. According to this view, 
the soul must be convicted of its necessity, as in the case 
of pardon and regeneration — seek for it as a distinct 
blessing — believe for it noiv^ and, thus believing, obtain it 
in an instant. On the other hand, it is admitted that it 

* Of the following address, only a "brief' was prepared before de- 
livery. It may therefore differ in phraseology from the remarks in the 
Preachers' Meeting, but it is the same line of thought then pursued. 
The omission of a few minor points, noted in the plan, became neces- 
sary in consequence of the restriction of the time of the speakers at 
that period of the discussion. Unable to recollect precisely what was 
omitted, I have followed the brief. 




THE MEANS OF ITS ATTAINMENT. 



6 



62 



NEW YOEK PREACHEPvS' MEETING. 



is the work of the Holy Ghost ; but instead of attaining it 
by a single act of faith^ the soul is to "go on to'^ it in 
successive acts of faith and obedience ; rising step by step, 
until it gains that eminence of grace and holiness termed 
in the Scriptures " Christian perfection/^ 

Starting with the supposition that the first named of 
these theories is correct, I think I am authorized to expect 
that in the word of God I shall find this work set forth 
distinctly and clearly, as is justification, and proffered to 
faith. If such a second work is necessary to salvation, it 
will be definitely stated in the book God has given to 
guide us in the way to heaven. 

Precisely here is my difficulty. I hear the Apostles say 
to the trembling sinner at Philippi, " Believe on the Lord 
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved (Acts 16, 31); but I 
do not find it said. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and 
thou shalt be wholly sanctified. It is declared that the 
sinner is justified by faith, Rom. iii. 28, but nowhere 
asserted that the Christian is made peyj'ect by faith. 

A class of passages are quoted to sustain this view 
which clearly have no reference to the subject. Among 
those most frequently cited is Ezek. xxxvi. 25. But this was 
a promise made to a people who had wickedly departed 
from God, and were at this very hour suffering his curse 
on account of sin. To such a people God did not promise 
entire sanctification. Nor will the phraseology bear such 
interpretation. I will sprinkle clean water upon you 
(alluding to the external legal purifications. Numb. viii. 7, 
xix. 17 and 18), and ye shall be clean ; from all your filthi- 
ness, and from all your idols, wdll I cleanse you.'^ That 
this refers to external impurity — the sins for which they 
were then suffering — is evident from the following words : 



ADDEESS OF EEV. S. D. BROWN. 



63 



A 71610 heart also will I give you^ a new spirit will I put 
within you ; I will take av/ay the stony heart out of your 
fleshy and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will 
put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my 
statutes. . . . And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave 
to your fathers.^^ The entire language is such as is used 
in the Holy Scriptures to denote a change of character, not 
its perfection."^ 

Psa. li. 10-13, so often quoted, is a prayer for mercy 
upon the part of one who had fallen into deadly sin, and 
proves nothing upon this subject, unless a soul can pass, 
by one act of faith, from the lowest depths of " blood- 
guiltiness^^ to the heights of entire sanctification. It is 
the prayer of a penitent backslider for restoration and 
cleansing, and has no reference to Christian perfection. 

In this discussion, Rom. viii. 2-4 has been applied to 
the sanctified. This is not a promise to believers, but a 
simple statement of what has been accomplished for those 
who are in Christ Jesus.^^ It applies to the justified, in 
opposition to the struggling penitent mentioned in the 
preceding chapter, and is so construed by all our standard 
writers. To apply it otherwise, is to violate all the rules 
of biblical criticism. 1 John i. 7 is also quoted. If this 
has reference to this higher state of grace, it is granted 
not to those who believe only, but to those who, believing, 
''walk in the light.^^ Mr. Wesley concedes that the term 
sanctification, standing alone without any qualifying word, 
as entire or wholly, does not express what he means by 

perfect love.^^ And that all who are justified are, in 

Both Clarke and Benson regard this as a specific promise to the 
Jewish people, to be fulfilled in and at their final restoration to the 
promised land. See on 24th verse. 



64 



NEW YOKK preachers' MEETING. 



the Scripture sense of that term, sanctified, will be evident 
to all who will consult 1 Cor. i. 2, vi. 11, Jude i., and 
similar passages. Yet, sucli texts as 1 Thess. iv. 3, This 
is the will of God, even your sanctification,'' are constantly 
urged as proving this doctrine. The term holiness is also, 
in its lower sense, applied to all Christians; 1 Thess. v. 
27, Heb. iii. 1, Eph. iv. 24. And hence we are exhorted 
to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness, perfecting holiness 
in the fear of God 2 Cor. vii. 1. 

Even Mr. "Wesley is guilty of this inconsistency. Who- 
ever will read his sermons on Christian perfection, and his 

Plain Account,'^ will see that he quotes texts, to prove 
and explain this doctrine, which in his sermon on Ee- 
generation and the New Birth he applies to the change 
which takes place in connection with justification. This 
is calculated to produce confusion, and is one cause of the 
mist that, in the minds of many of our people, obscures 
this doctrine. And hence it is that we have so many 

professing sanctification whose experience is even below 
the scriptural standard of justification. 

There are two classes of texts which plainly refer to 
the doctrine of Christian perfection. Those which speak 
of the state, but without any reference to the means and 
conditions of its attainment, and those which present us 
also ilciQ means by which it is to be reached. It is mani- 
fest that in this discussion the first class are to be laid out 
of the question. They may be cited to prove the attain- 
ability of such a state, or to establish the doctrine, but 
have no force in determining the means by which we are 
to attain it. Such are 1 John iv. 18, Perfect love casteth 
out fear;'^ and Col. i. 28, ^^That we may present every 
man perfect in Christ Jesus.^^ These passages are equally 



ADDEESS OF EEY. S. D. BEOWN. 



65 



consistent with either of the theories advocated on this 
floor. 

"When we refer to the other class, we find that the 
Apostles, instead of urging Christians to believe for per- 
fection or entire sanctification, exhort them ^^to go on 
unto it/^ grow up^^ into it. It is presented as the result 
of development or growth. The Apostle exhorts the 
Hebrew Christians, Leaving the principles of the doc- 
trine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection Heb. vi. 1. 
This passage is often quoted to prove this doctrine, and, I 
am disposed to believe, legitimately, although some doubt. 
In the context the Apostle represents them as needing 
milk — the first principles of the Gospel — because they 
were babes; thus connecting their state, as relating to 
knowledge, with their attainments in holiness, and making 
the former dependent upon the latter. When, therefore, 
he exhorts them to go on unto perfection,^^ he has refer- 
ence to both, as has Peter in the exhortation, grow in 
grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour 
Jesus Christ 2 Pet. iii. 18. And the direction is, ^^go 
on unto,^^ an expression which plainly implies advancing 
toward an object until it is i^eached ; not seizing it by a 
single act. If we refer to the context, w^e read. When /or 
the time, ye ought to be teachers, ye have become such as 
have need of milk — babes. Strong meat belongeth to 
them that are of full age, even to those who, by reason- of 
use, have their senses exercised to discern both good and 
evil. If then, this passage has reference to this doctrine, 
as many suppose, it fully supports " gradualism.^^ 

Again, the Apostle declares, Eph. iv. 11-18, that the 
various orders of the ministry are given for the perfect- 
ing of the saints and the edifying of the body of Christ ; 

6 * 



66 



NEW YOPvK preachers' MEETING. 



till we all come in the unity of the faith^ and the kno^v- 
ledge of the Son of God^ unto a perfect man^ unto the 
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ ; that we 
be no more cJiildren, but speaking the truth in love^ may 
groio up into Him in all things/' The doctrine of the 
text certainly is^ that being no longer children we are to 
grow up into Christy ^^till we come'' to a perfect man- 
hood^ " the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;" 
as the Churchy the building of God, groweth unto a holy 
temple in the Lord." 

So Paul says of himself (Phil. iii. 12-15): ^^Not as 
though I had already attained, either weve already perfect ; 
but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which 
also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count 
not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do : 
forgetting those thiiigs which are behind, and reaching 
forth unto those things which are before, I press toward 
the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ 
Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus 
minded." And verse 16, Whereto we have already 
attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind thje 
same thing." 

No words that I can employ will give as clear a view 
of this passage as the notes of Mr. Benson, a part of which 
I quote: ^^Not as though I had already attained the 
blessings which I am in pursuit of, even that complete 
knowledge of Christ, of the power of His resurrection, the 
fellowship of His sufferings, and conformity to His death 
just mentioned — either were already perfect, perfected, 
completed — or had finished my course of duty and suffer- 
ings. But I follow after, pursue what is before me, that 
I may apprehend that perfect holiness, that entire con- 



ADDRESS OF EEY. S. J> BROWN. 



67 



formity to the will of God, for which also I am appre- 
hended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to 
have apprehended — to have already attained those high 
degrees of holiness, internal and external, of usefulness 
and conformity to my blessed jMaster, which I have in 
view. But this one thing I do : forgetting those things 
which are behind — even that part of the race of Christian 
experience, duty and suffering which is already run, and 
reaching forth — stretching forward toward — those things 
which are before, toward still higher attainments in grace, 
and the further labors and sufferings v/hich remain to be 
accomplished — I press tov/ard the mark, which God hath 
placed before me, even a full conformity to the image of 
His Son in my heart and life. Let us, as many as are 
perfect, as many as are genuine believers in Christ, 
thorough Christians, justified and regenerated, new crea- 
tures in Christ, and so fit for the Christian race of duty 
and suffering, be thus minded — inclined and determined 
to press forward to still higher attainments in holiness, 
usefulness, and patient suffering, till, as Christ was, they 
are made in this world. And whereunto we have already 
attained, or so far forth as we have already made any pro- 
gress toward perfection, we walk by the same rule by 
which we have hitherto walked, and take care not to lose 
the ground we have already gained.^^ 

This is the view of one endorsed as a commentator 
by the Wesleyan Conference, and presents the doctrine 
of the Apostle clearly. 

I may here pause to remark that in the world in which 
we live every form of life, both in the vegetable and ani- 
mal kingdom, attains maturity by development or growth. 
The seed is cast into the earth, the blade springs up and 



68 NEW YOKK PREACHEKS' MEETING. ||||| 

develops day after day, until the ripened grain is fit for 
the sickle. The stately oak was once a little sprout the 
foot of a child might have crushed — ^year after year it has 
increased until it has attained perfection. So of the leaf, 
the flower, the fruit. So of animal life — of man, as 
relates both to his physical and mental powers. He is 
born in a state of weakness, apparently below the brute. 
But the physical powers develop until he reaches the per- 
fection of manhood — the mental powers, scarcely percepti- 
ble in infancy, grow by culture until they attain maturity. 
If spiritual life is an exception to this rule, it is the only 
exception within the range of our knowledge. 

I am not about to construct an analogical argument, 
although it appears to me one miglit be constructed far 
more forcible than that employed on the other side, that 
the completion of this life — entire sanctification — must be 
by the same means and upon the same conditions as its 
commencement in justification. 

But, sir, if this spiritual life is in this respect an excep- 
tion to all other forms of life with which we are acquainted, 
that difference needed to be definitely stated. And in a 
Book given to teach men the way of life, I may expect to 
find it clearly and accurately defined. But instead of this, 
the very terms are employed which we use to express the 
development of life in other forms. V/ e are exhorted to 
''''grow in grace," to ^^grow up in him to a perfect man to 
the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ ;" the 
very term we employ to express the steady increase of the 
tree toward perfection, and the constant progress of the 
physical and mental powers toward maturity — the very 
term employed in the Scriptures for this purpose, for it is 



ADDRESS OF EEY. S. D. BROW^^. 



69 



gaid of John and afterward of Christ, the child grew and 
waxed strong in spirit f Luke i. 80, ii. 40. 

Indeed, the change we denominate regeneration is ex- 
plained by figures drawn from natural life. It is termed 
the new birth, and these new-born are called babes.^' I 
might therefore expect the same analogy in the develop- 
ment of this life. And when I find the family of God 
described by John, not as divided into two classes, sancti- 
fied and unsanctified, but as presenting various stages of 
development, as we see in families around us — "little 
children (infants, Clarke), children, young men and 
fathers (1 John ii. 12-14) — the conclusion seems to me 
irresistible that, starting from the state of spiritual in- 
fancy, they pass from one stage to another in their pro- 
gress toward perfection, in the same manner and form as 
in other cases of development. And the Divine Jesus 
Himself illustrates the law of progress in His kingdom by 
allusion to the law of vegetable life — to the seed which 
springs up and grows he knows not how — " first the blade, 
then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear Mark 
iv. 28. Now we humbly submit that these passages are 
calculated to mislead if men reach perfection by an in- 
stantaneous work, and have misled the great majority of 
the Christian Church in all ages. Believing this cannot 
be with a just God, I am driven to the view some of our 
opponents have baptized with the name " gradual ism.^^ 

Coming back to the starting-point, I remark again, if 
there is such a second and distinct work, to be attained by 
every believer by a farther act of faith, by which Christians 
are endued with greater power to promote the cause of 
Christ, it is fair to conclude that those w^ho were sent to 
plant Christianity must have attained that higher state. 



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KEW YOEK PEEACHERS' MEETING. 



It is true that the bare fact that the Apostles, in their 
peculiar circumstances, were made perfect suddenly, Avould 
not prove that it is the privilege of all ; but if it is the 
right of all Christians, they surely must have attained to 
it. If they had the experience of which we hear so much 
in modern days, and which we are told it is the duty of 
its possessors to profess and proclaim everywhere, it would 
have been recorded for the benefit of future generations. 
But the fact is, strange as it may appear, that no such 
experience is recorded in the life of any of the Apostles. 
Mr. Wesley, in answer to the question, Is there auy ex- 
ample in Scripture of persons who had attained to this 
says, ^^Yes, St. John, and all those of whom he says,- 
Herein is our love made perfect.^^ But John wrote these 
words toward the close of a long and faithful life ; and 
whether his love was made perfect in an instant, or had 
grown to perfection in the lapse of years, is not stated. 
Yet this is the only instance cited. And it is safe to say 
that there is, in the Scriptures, no profession of sanctifi- 
cation^^ in the sense the phrase is understood in our day. 

It will not answer to assert that the baptism of the Holy 
Ghost on the clay of Pentecost was entire sanctification. 
It is said the Spirit descended upon them, and " they were 
all filled with the Holy Ghost;'' Acts ii. 4. But a few 
days later, when these same men were praying again, the 
place was shaken, and they w^ere all filled with the Holy 
Ghost;'' iv. 31. If this was ^^sanctification," they were 
twice sanctified. The Holy Ghost fell on Cornelius and 
his household; x. 44. ^^As on us at the beginning," says 
Peter, xi. 15 ; so that these Gentile converts were sanctified 
at conversion. 

Take the case of the Apostle Paul. In the ninth chapter 



ADDRESS OF REV. S. D EROWI^. 



71 



of Acts we have a detailed account of his conversion ; so 
minute, that it is even recorded that he was three days 
without sight and neither did eat nor drink/^ Years 
afterward, when called to defend himself and his religion 
against the turbulent Jews, he rehearsed that experience, 
giving us a second minute detail of his conversion. And 
when he was permitted to speak for himself before 
Agrippa, he alludes yet again to that change and describes 
the circumstances. And in both cases he alluded to it as 
proof of the truth and power of Christianity, and a vindi- 
cation of his own conduct. If two such instances are re- 
corded in so brief a history as the Acts of the Apostles, 
only a part of which is devoted to the life of Paul, it is 
fair to infer that it was with him a frequent practice when 
preaching to the unconverted. 

We have several epistles written by this Apostle, some 
of them to churches, and others to individual ministers, 
and designed especially to build up the Church and direct 
Christians in the way to heaven. In these he does allude 
to his conversion and preaching at Damascus, but never to 
any second and higher work. He does treat of Christian 
perfection ; he does, in several instances, allude to him- 
self and his own experience in various particulars, but 
never tells his Christian brethren when or how he was 
sanctified. On the other hand, he does tell them he had 
not yet attained,^^ but was pressing toward it, and exhorts 
them to go on unto perfection.'^ This is unaccountable 
if Paul had any such experience. That he should have 
twice alluded to his conversion, and yet in these letters, 
covering more than twice the space of the Acts of the 
Apostles, make no allusion to a second work of cleansing, 
is to my mind proof that he had no such experience to 



72 



NEW YOEK PEEACHERS' MEETING. 



record. And if the great Apostle to the Gentiles had not 
received it^ we have no reason to expect it. 

But we are also referred to the standard writers of the 
Churchy of which it seems we have a great army. This 
subject has been sufficiently ventilated by preceding 
speakers, and needs but a passing remark. In the writings 
of Mr. Wesley upon this topic there is an indefiniteness 
and even contradiction not found with reference to any 
other subject. Take this as an example, selected from his 
Plain Account: 

Q. When does inward sanctification begin? 

A. In the moment a man is justified. Yet sin remains in him, yea, 
the seed of sin, till he is sanctified throughout. From that time a be- 
liever gradually dies to sin and grows in grace. 

What is meant by from that thnef The connection 
would seem to imply from the time ^^he is sanctified 
throughout." But this involves the absurdity of supposing 
that he gradually dies to sin" after sin is dead. It is 
therefore evident that the moment of justification is meant. 
If so^ then the plain meaning is^ that from the time of his 
justification ^^the believer gradually dies to sin, and 
grows in grace, until sanctified throughout." Even Dr. 
Mattison could not teach gradualism " in more explicit 
terms. 

A single quotation further from Mr. Wesley, with 
reference to the manner of seeking it, must suffice for the 
present : 

Q. How are we to wait for this change ? 

A. Not in careless indifference or indolent inactivity, but in vigor- 
ous universal obedience, in a zealous keeping of all the command- 
ments, in watchfulness and painfulness, in denying ourselves and 
taking up our cross daily, as well as in earnest prayer and fasting, and 
a close attendance on all the ordinances of God. And if any man 



ADDKESS OF REV. S. D. BROWJS'. 



73 



dream of attaining it any other way (yea, or of keeping it when it is 
attained, when he has received it even in the largest measure), he de- 
ceiveth his own soul. It is true we receive it by simple faith. But 
God does not, will not give that faith, unless we seek it with all dili- 
gence in the way which He hath ordained. 

This consideration may satisfy those who inquire why so few have 
received the blessing ? Inquire how many are seeking it in this way, 
and you have a sufficient answer. 

We are farther referred to the questions of our Disci- 
pline, and an earnest appeal is made to " the trembling 
yet hopeful interest with which we answered in " that 
moment never to be forgotten/^ Let us then analyze these 
^' searching inquiries/^ Are you going on unto perfection ? 
Do you expect to be made perfect in love in this lifef Are 
you groaning after it Strange questions truly, if the 
view advocated by Bro. Inskip and others is true ! Why 
should it not be asked, Have you perfect love ? as it is 
asked, " Have you faith in Christ Or at least are you 
seeJcirig it, and do you expect it 7iow ? But, instead, we are 
asked. Are you going on unto perfection, and do you expect 
to 7'each it in this life, or before you die ? With the senti- 
ments I now have, I could answer these questions as 
sincerely, and far more intelligently, than when at the 
altar I took upon me these ministerial vows. 

We are farther referred to the experience of individuals 
as proof upon this point. Individual experience may be 
regarded as corroborating the Divine word, but an experi- 
ence not fully substantiated by that word is to be suspected 
or deemed peculiar to that individual. If, then, this in- 
stantaneous change is not clearly set forth in the inspired 
volume, we cannot receive the testimony of those who 
profess to have experienced it as satisfactory. If we do, 
we must receive the testimony of those who pretend to 



74 



NEW YOEK PREACHEES^ MEETING. 



have had communication from spirits — must indeed give 
our sanction to the wildest vagaries of the human imagi- 
nation. 

So far as the witnesses of this doctrine" are concerned, 
I am forced to feel the general truth of the strictures of 
Dr. Curry. As a rule^ I have not found them more de- 
voted or zealous or self-sacrificing than others. Many of 
them have been arrogant and censorious^ evincing any- 
thing rather than " perfect love;'' and if by their fruits we 
are to know men^ tJieir testimony must be set aside. But 
it is freely conceded that there are some of a different 
character^ who are mild and loving yet firm and zealous, 
who are deeply devoted to God and possess great unction 
and power. But all this might result from a larger mea- 
sure of Divine grace, without supposing that they have in 
a single moment gained " perfection's height." Some of 
them have been remarkably blessed, and under the exhor- 
tation to ^^give God the glory," ^^call it by its right 
name," and the like, have professed sanctification. I can 
readily see how, under certain influences, sincere people 
mi2:ht mistake such a lars^e effusion of the Spirit as Chris- 
tians sometimes receive for entire sanctification. There 
are a few who seem to have attained a higher state than 
others — perhaps this ; but they are mostly those who were 
long " groaning after it ;" those who experienced a 
gradual mortification of sin," until they felt a death unto 
sin." 

This does not militate against our theory. Growth in 
grace may be much more rapid in some circumstances than 
others, as vegetation is more rapid in some cases than 
others. It is declared by Paul, with reference to the resto- 
ration of the Jews, He will finish the work and cut it 



ADDEESS OF HEY. S. D. BEOWl^. 



75 



short in righteousness/^ Rom. ix. 28. There is certainly 
nothing absurd in the supposition that as God has some- 
times interfered v/ith^ and even suspended^ the laws of na- 
ture for the accomplishment of His purposes in the attesta- 
tion of His messengers^ so He may, in certain cases and for 
specific purposes, hasten this work in individual cases ; 
especially where peculiar responsibility is imposed upon 
those individuals. 

Here we may find an explanation of the experiences of 
many of the early Methodists. God endowed the Apostles 
and many of the primitive Christians with miraculous 
gifts. He especially gave them power to speak in " other 
tongues.^^ No such gift is now imparted. Even the man 
who consecrates his life to the missionary work, and goes 
forth yearning for the salvation of souls, must spend weary 
months and even years in earnest toil ere he can speak the 
words of this life to perishing men. And this is the 
general law. But in the case of the Apostles, there was 
no time for study ; those called to this work were too far 
advanced in life and too uncultivated to learn readily; it 
was important that the standard of the Gospel should be 
planted while the memory of Christ's works w^as yet fresh 
in the hearts of the people ; and to meet the emergency, 
God departed from His usual method of working, and in 
a moment gave iliem a power which only years of intense 
labor and application can impart to others. And it would 
be unsafe to expect the same miraculous gift in other 
circumstances. 

Primitive Methodism was but a restoration of pure 
religion from the cold formalism and deadness of centuries. 
It required at its commencement, more than at any other 
period, men perfected in all the Christian graces, to meet 



76 



NEW YORK PKEACHERS' MEETING. 



the opposition and withstand the influences against it- 
there was no time for men to mature, accordins: to the 
ordinary law of His kingdom ; and to meet that emergency, 
scarcely less than in the days of the Apostles, He cut 
short His work/^ and brought the instruments into the 
enjoyment of this perfect love speedily. But we have no 
right to expect now, when there is opportunity for 
culture and growth, that God will thus perfect all, be- 
cause by these unusual means, in such an emergency. He 
qualified men for a specific work. As little right have we 
to infer that it is the privilege of all, because a few are 
found, who, designed for special responsibility, are pre- 
pared for that position by a rapid progress of Divine 
grace, unless God's word (the sole authority) presents it 
as the privilege of all. Indeed, the fanaticism that pre- 
vailed upon this subject in the days of the Wesleys, as in 
our own, and the vast numbers who merely professed this 
high state of grace, as, in the days of the Apostles, men 
coveted and pretended to miraculous gifts, fully proves 
that while necessary in cases of emergency, it would have 
been unsafe as the general law of His kingdom. 

If this view may be allowed, it accounts for the instances 
quoted in the days of the "Wesleys, and for the few of 
modern days, whose experience many may find it impossi- 
ble to doubt. And that it is no vain chimera, is evident, 
^f Mr. Wesley may be regarded as authority. In his 
tract on Christian Perfection, he has given us the sub- 
stance of conversations on this subject at the Conferences, 
and then his own matured reflections and views, taken 
from a work entitled, Further Thoughts on Christian 
Perfection,'^ published as late as 1768. In this we have 
the following : 



ADDRESS OF EEV. S. D. BROWN. 



77 



Q. 25. But is not this tlie case of all that are justified ? Do they not 
gradually die to sin and grow in grace, till at, or perhaps a little before 
death, God perfects them in love? 

A. I believe this is the case of most, but not all. God usually gives a 
considerable time for men to receive light, to grow in grace, to do and 
suffer His will, before they are either justified or sanctified. But He 
does not invariably adhere to this. Sometimes he cuts short His 
work. He does the work of many years in a few weeks; perhaps in a 
week, a day, an hour. He justifies, or sanctifies, both those who have 
done or suffered nothing, and who have not had time for a gradual 
growth, either in light or grace. And may He not do what He ivill with 
His ovm f Is thine eye evil, because He is good f 

It need not, therefore, be affirmed over and over, and proved by 
forty texts of Scripture, either that most men are perfect in love at 
last, that there is a gradual work of God in the soul ; or that, generally 
speaking, it is a long time, even many years, before sin is destroyed. 
All this we know. But we know, likewise, that God may, with man's 
good leave, cut short His work, in whatever degree He pleases, and do 
the usual work of many years in a moment. 

On the ^vhole^ it is concluded that while in rare instances 
and extraordinary circumstances men may be perfected 
in love instantaneously, yet the general law, as defined in 
the word of God, is, that we are to go on unto perfec- 
tion" by constant faith and steady obedience; advancing, 
day by day, until we attain perfect manhood ; " the mea- 
sure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." 
7* 



V. 

SPEECH OF REV. J. M. BUCKLEY. 

THE attainableness in this life of an experience called 
"Christian Perfection/^ "Perfect Love/^ "Entire 
Sanctification/^ is a leading doctrine of Methodism. To 
deny this would be to deny all our history, to repudiate 
what the ministers and authors of the Church in Europe 
and America have held from the day that the minds of 
the Wesley s were settled on this subject down to the pre- 
sent hour. 

Whether there be such an experience of perfection as 
that described by John Wesley, not absolute or divine- 
not Adamic, not angelic, but the full experience compre 
bended in the command, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy 
God with all thy heart,^^ &c., is not in debate here; th 
question before us takes it for granted. 

It must be conceded that the doctrine is not as fre 
quently preached as formerly — as in the early days o 
Methodism. I have made careful inquiry on this poin 
in the New England and the Western States, as well a 
to a considerable extent in the Middle States. Man 
ministers rarely allude to the subject, and it is frequentl 
the case that revivals of religion take place without a 
single sermon being delivered on this theme, which fift; 
years ago received so much attention. This fact was ac- 
knowledged by a preceding speaker, who assigned as a 
reason for the change that the people do not desire to hear 
it, and that the ministers, being fearful of their reputation, 

78 



SPEECH OF REV. J. M. BUCKLEY. 



79 



decline to preach it. This was an unworthy accusation, 
and was received with just indignation. The majority of 
the ministers of the Methodist Episcopal Church of ten 
years^ standing had frequent occasion to show that they re- 
gard truth beyond ease or reputation. Nor does it in- 
dicate humility in those who do preach it^ to assign such a 
reason for its not being preached by others. But still the 
fact remains. 

It was affirmed with truth, by the gentleman who pro- 
posed this question, that there is a deep yearning for purity 
in the hearts of the ministry and laity. But while this is 
true, it is also a fact that a large number of our best minds 
in the ministry and the laity are prejudiced against the 
doctrine of sanctification, technically so called. And it is 
true that multitudes of the people do not wish to hear the 
doctrine discussed. Under these circumstances, many 
pious and godly men do not preach on the subject, not 
because they are afraid of their reputations — a charge than 
which none more opprobious can well be conceived, unless 
it be that of gross immorality — but because they believe 
that they can better promote the highest religious expe- 
riences by expounding the promises of God without refer- 
ence to this subject by name. 

It is my purpose to inquire into the sources of this pre- 
judice (not among the worldly, but among so many people 
who do yearn for purity and a higher life) against this 
doctrine and against its discussion in the pulpit, or in our 
social meetings. 

Certainly the line of inquiry is pertinent to the ques- 
tion, for the removal of this prejudice is requisite to any 
general success in promoting the experience of perfect love. 
I think also, that the successful pursuit of such an inves- 



80 



NEW YORK PEEACHERS^ MEETING. 



tigation will evince the real doctrines of Methodism on tht 
subject, and at the same time show the substantial har- 
mony of Mr. Wesley^s views of it. I find the origin of 
this prejudice — 

1st. In erroneous preaching, talking and writing upon 
the subject, in the pulpit, in social conversation, and devo- 
tional meetings, and by the press. 

1. It has been held by many that the experience of 
sanctification differs from that of regeneration in hind as 
well as in degree; that the change is greater from regene- 
ration to sanctification than from the natural, unregenerate 
state of man to the regenerate condition. If it is asked 
what standard author has affirmed this? I am happy to say 
that I cannot quote any. And yet I have heard ministers 
in the pulpit and members of our Church affirm that very 
thing, and have also read various accounts of religious 
experience in which such a change is described. I have 
also heard men declare that ''it is impossible for a merely 
converted man to form the slightest conception of the 
experience of a sanctified soul.^^ 

In Mr. Wesley's day men fell into such errors on this 
point that he was obliged to caution them explicitly 
against them. And yet at the present day many of the 
professors of sanctification habitually use very unguarded 
language on the difference between regeneration and entire 
sanctification. The following passage from Mr. Yv^esley is 
in point: 

9. ^^But how does this work differ from that gracious 
work which is wrought in every believer -when he first 
finds redemption in the blood of Jesus, even the remission 
of his sins? Many i)ersons that are not only upright of 
heart, but that fear, nay, and love God, have not spoken 



SPEECH OF REV. J. M. BUCKLEY. 



81 



warily upon this head^ not according to the oracles of God. 
They have spoken of the work of sanctification, taking 
the word in its full sense^ as if it were quite of another 
kind, as if it differed entirely from that which is wrought 
in justification. But this is a great and dangerous mis- 
take, and has a tendency to make us undervalue that 
great and glorious work of God which was wrought in 
us when we were justified." He then describes the justi- 
fied state, and proceeds thus : " Well, but what more than 
this can be implied in entire sanctification ?" It does not 
imply any new hind of holiness. Let no man imagine 
that. From the moment we are justified till we give up 
our spirits to God, love is the fulfilling of the law, of the 
whole Evangelical law Vv^hich took the place of the 
Adamic law when the first promise of ^^the seed of the 
woman was made. Love is the sum of Christian sancti- 
fication ; it is the one Mud of holiness which is found only 
in various degrees in the believers who are distinguished 
by St. John into little children, young men, and fathers." 
— Worhs, vol. ii., p. 221. 

The representation which Mr. Wesley here condemns 
savors of delusion, leads to fanaticism, and creates a great 
prejudice against the truth. It is to be regretted that it 
is still frequently made. 

2. Another point on which unguarded language is often 
uttered, is that of the condition of justified persons, or, as 
they are frequently called, the merely justified." On 
hearing such language one would think that the children 
of God are in a horrible condition unless entirely sanctified. 

The question is often put to the believer, with the 
witness of the Spirit to his regeneration, faithful and 
devoted, but not w^holly sanctified, Suppose you were to 



82 



NEW YOKK PEEAGHEES' MEETING. 



die in your present state Frequently the tone of utter- 
ance rises to tliat of denunciation. But how improper is 
such language ! The sincere Christian is an heir of God 
and a joint heir with Christy growing in grace and in the 
knowledge of Christ; all the promises are his; God has 
promised to sanctify him^ and if but a babe in Christ, he 
is still in Christ, and God will guide him by his counsel 
and afterw^ards receive him to glory. 

I have known revivals stopped by such representations. 
Sinners were perplexed and saints utterly confounded. 
There is nothing ^Hiorrible^^ in the condition of any soul 
renewed by the Spirit and growing in grace. 

Mr. Yf esley expressed himself with great clearness, con- 
sistency and beauty on this point. 

The intrinsic interest and value of these quotations will 
warrant their introduction : 

Q. 19. ^^Do we ordinarily represent a justified state so 
great and happy as it is? 

A, Perhaps not; a believer walking in the light is 
inexpressibly great and glorious. 

Q. 20. Should we not have a care of depreciating 
justification in order to exalt the state of full sanctifi- 
cation? 

A, ^^Undoubtedly we should beware of this, for one 
may insensibly slide into it. 

Q. 21. ^^How shall we effectually avoid it? 

A, "When w^e are going to speak of entire sanctification 
let us first describe the blessings of a justified state as 
strongly as possible.^^ — Yol. v., p. 201. 

Q. 22. "Is not the teaching believers to be continually 
poring upon their inbred sin the ready way to make them 
forget that they were purged from their former sins ? 



SPEECH OF KEV. J. M. BUCKLEY. 



83 



A, ^^We find by experience it is; or to make them un- 
dervalue and account it a little thing, whereas, indeed 
(though there are still greater gifts behind), this is inex- 
j^ressibly great and glorious/^ — Vol. v., p. 211. 

In the sermon on the "More Excellent Way/^ Mr. 
"Wesley says : 

"From long experience and observation, I am inclined 
to think that whoever finds redemption in the blood of 
Jesus, whoever is justified, has then the choice of walking 
in the higher or the lower path. I believe the Holy 
Spirit at that time sets before him the more excellent way 
and incites him to walk therein, to chose the narrowest 
path in the narrow way, to aspire after the heights and 
depths of holiness, after the entire image of God. But if 
he does not accept this offer, he insensibly declines into the 
lower order of Christians. He still goes on in what may 
be called a good way, serving God in his degree, and finds 
mercy at the close of life through the blood of the cove- 
nant. I would be far from quenching the smoking flax, 
from discouraging those that serve God in a low degree. 
But I could not wish them to stop here. I would en- 
courage them to come up higher, without thundering hell 
and damnation into their ears. Without condemning the 
way wherein they were, telling men tliat it is the way that 
leads to destruction, I will endeavor to point out to them 
what is in every respect a more excellent way. Let it be 
well remembered, I do not affirm that all who do not walk 
in this way are in the high road to hell.^^ — ^Yol. ii., p. 267. 

If such a method of exhortation were employed, many 
serious evils would be remedied. Let it be observed that 
I do not advocate telling men that they sliould he content 
without entire sanctification, but oppose representing them 



84 :n'ew York: peeachers^ meeting. 

as in a horrible and dreadful condition, while they are 
really the children of God. 

If a person has backslidden, and is in the road to hell, 
let him be warned, but if he is a child of God let him not 
be robbed of his joy. 

3. On the question of the instantaneousness of the work, 
also, has the mind of the Church been confused. To a 
superficial reader, Mr. Wesley^s views on this subject 
appear to be confused, if not contradictory. His views 
can be harmonized only by assuming that when he dwells 
upon the instantaneousness of the work, he means not 
entire sanctifiation, but the completion or consummation 
of sanctification, and refers merely to the moment when 
that process of sanctification which had been going on in 
the soul ever since the hour of justification, is finished. 

I propose to prove — 

1st. That Mr. Wesley speaks of sanctification as a 
gradual worh, and that he does so with such clearness 
that it is not possible to mistake his meaning : 

At the same time that we are justified; yea, in that 
very moment, sanctification begins. ^ " From the 
time of our being born again, the gradual ivorJc of sancti- 
fication takes place. We are enabled by the Spirit to 
mortify the deeds of the body of our evil nature; and as 
we are more and more dead to sin, we are more and more 
alive to God. We go on from grace to grace, while we 
are careful to abstain from all appearance of evil and are 
zealous of good works, as we have opportunity of doing 
good to all men, while we walk in all his ordinances 
blameless, therein worshiping him in spirit and in truth, 
while Vv^e take up our cross and deny ourselves every plea- 
sure that will not lead us to God. It is thus that we 



SPEECH OF EEY. J. M. BUCKLEY. 



85 



^vait^^ (not for sanctification^ for that is going on contin- 
ually, but) ^^for entire sanctification, for a full salvation 
from all our sins, from pride, self-will, anger, unbelief, or, 
as the apostle expresses it, go on to perfection/^ — Vol. i., 
pp. 385, 386. 

Again, he says that the Catholics confound justification 
and sanctification, and proceeds thus: 

^^But it has pleased God to give the Methodists a full 
and clear knowledge of each, and the wide difference 
between them. They know, indeed, that at the same 
time a man is justified sanctification proj^erly begins. For 
when he is justified he is born again, born from above, 
born of the Spirit. * It is true, a late very emi- 

nent author, in his strange treatise on regeneration, pro- 
ceeds entirely on the supposition that it is the wliole 
gradual process of sanctification, No. It is only the 
threshold of sanctification — the first entrance upon it; 
and, as in the natural birth, a man is born at once, and 
then grows larger and stronger by degrees, so in the 
spiritual birth a man is born at once, and then gradually 
increases in spiritual stature and strength. The new birth, 
therefore, is the first point of sanctificatioUy which may 
increase more and more unto the perfect day.^^ — ^^^ol. ii., 
pp. 389, 390. 

I have selected many other passages bearing on this 

point, but these are sufficient. I will now proceed to 

prove that when Mr. Wesley speaks of sanctification as an 

instantaneous work he always means the consummation 

or completion of it. The quotations which I shall offer 

on this head are among the clearest and most interesting 

passages which that most luminous and cogent writer has 

left to the branch of Christ's Church which he established, 
s 



86 



NEW YOEK PEEACHEES' MEETING. 



4. ^^But it may be inquired^ In what manner does 
God work this entire^ this universal change in the soul of 
a believer? this strange work which so many will not 
believe, though v/e declare it unto them ? Does he work 
it gradually, by slow degrees, or instantaneously, in a 
moment? How many are the disputes on this head, even 
among the children of God; and so there will be after all 
ever was or ever can be said upon it. 
This premised, in order to throw what light I can upon 
this interesting question, I will simply relate what I 
have seen myself in the course of many years. Four or 
five and forty years ago, when I had no distinct views of 
v/hat the apostle meant by exhorting us to leave the prin- 
ciples of the doctrine of Christ and go on to perfection, 
two or three persons in London, whomT knew to be truly 
sincere, desired to give me an account of their experience. 
It appeared exceeding strange, being different from any 
that I had ever heard before, but exactly similar to the 
preceding account of entiee sanctification. The next 
year two or three more persons at Bristol, and two or three 
at Kingswood, coming to me severally, gave me exactly 
the same account of their experience. 

"A. few years after I desired all those in London who 
made the same profession, to come to me altogether at the 
Foundry, that I might be thoroughly satisfied. I desired 
that man of God, Thomas Walsh, to give us the meeting 
there. When v/e met, first one of us and then the other 
asked them the most searching questions we could devise. 
They answered every one without hesitation and with the 
utmost simplicity, so that we were fully persuaded they 
did not deceive themselves. In the years 1759, 1760j 
1761, and 1762, their numbers multiplied exceedingly 



SPEECH OF EEV. J. M. BUCKLEY. 



87 



not only in London and Bristol, but in various parts ot 
Ireland as ^vell as England. Not trusting to the testi- 
mony of others, I carefully examined most of these myself, 
and in London alone I found six hundred and fifty-two 
members of our society who w^ere exceeding clear in their 
experience, and of whose testimony I could see no reason 
to doubt. I believe no year has passed since that time 
wherein God has not wrought the same work in many 
others ; but sometimes in one part of England or Ireland, 
sometimes in another, as the wind bloweth where it listeth ; 
and every one of these — after careful inquiry, I have not 
found one exception, either in Great Britain or Ireland — ■ 
has declared that his deliverance from sin was instantane- 
ous, that the change was wrought in a moment. Had 
half of these, or one-third, or one in twenty declared it 
was gradually wrought in them, I should have believed 
this with regard to themj and thought that some were 
gradually sanctified and some instantaneously. But as I 
have not found in so long a space of time a single person 
speaking thus, as all v/ho believe they are sanctified de- 
clare with one voice that the change was wrought in a 
moment, I cannot but believe that sanctification is com- 
monly, if not always, an instantaneous work. But how- 
ever that question be decided, whether sanctification in the 
full sense of the word be wrought instantaneously or gradu- 
ally, how may we attain to it?^^ — ^Yol. ii., p. 222. 

If this passage be carefully read, the proof of the posi- 
tion now under consideration becomes entirely satisfactory. 
He first describes the work, and then declares that the 
experience related to him was "exactly similar to the 
preceding account of entire sanctification.'^ And in sum- 
ming up he calls the experience whose method of develop- 



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NEW YOEK PEEACHERS' MEETING. 



ment with regard to time is in question sanctification in 
i\\Qfull sense of the word/^ 

Next we offer passages in Avhich he clearly states both 
the gradual and the instantaneous parts of the work^ and 
discriminates between them : 

Afterwards we experience the proper Christian salva- 
tion whereby through grace we are saved by faith^ consist- 
ing of these two grand branches — justification and sanc- 
tification. By justification we are saved from the guilt of 
sin and restored to the favor of God ; by sanctification we 
are saved from the power and root of sin and restored to 
the image of God. All experience^ as well as Scripture, 
show this salvation to be both instantaneous and gradual. 
It begins the moment we are justified in the holy, humble, 
gentle, patient love of God and man. It gradually in- 
creases from that moment, as a grain of mustard seed, 
which at first is the least of all seeds, but afterwards puts 
forth large branches and becomes a great tree, till in an- 
other instant the heart is cleansed from all sin and filled 
with pure love to God and man. But even that love 
increases more and more till we grow up in all things 
into Him that is our head ; till we attain the measure of 
the stature of the fullness of Christ.^^ — Vol. ii., p. 236. 

Is this death to sin and renewal in love gradual or 
instantaneous'i A, A man may be dying for some time, 
yet he does not properly die till the instant the soul is 
separated from the body, and in that instant he lives the 
full life of eternity. In like manner he may be dying to 
sin /or some time, yet he is not dead to sin till sin is sepa- 
rated from his soul, and in that instant he lives the fidl 
life of loveJ^ — ^Yol. vi., p. 505. 

Here we see what is instantaneous. It is the becoming 



SPEECH OF EEY. J. M. BUCKLEY. 



89 



entire of the gradual work of purification. In a certain 
sense everything is instantaneous, for there is but one in- 
stant in existence at a time. 

An allusion, apparently irreverent in spirit and exceed- 
ingly sophistical in meaning, was made in the course of 
this debate to Mr. Wesley^s beautiful illustration drawn 
from the gradual process of dying, terminating in the in- 
stant of death. It was substantially this, It does not 
take a man a great while to die if he is killed.^^ Mr. 
Wesley, on the contrary, selects ordinary deaths in which 
a man may be a long w^hile in dying. 

Another speaker made a ludicrous attempt to show that 
it is impossible to ever reach entire sanctification by a 
gradual death to sin and a corresponding growth in purity ; 
and endeavored to illustrate his views by referring to the 
fact in mathematics that if two bodies approach each other 
by a successive halving of the distance between them they 
will never meet. It is usually supposed that the purpose 
of an illustration is to render more clear the subject to 
which it is applied ; and therefore an analogy in at least 
one particular must exist betv/een the point illustrated and 
the illustration. 

Mr. Wesley^s sterling common sense was never more 
manifest than in the following passage, which is in direct 
opposition to such irrational views : 

" But to return. In the same proportion as he grows 
in faith lie grows in holiness ; he increases in love, lowliness, 
meekness, in every part of the image of God, till it pleases 
God, after he is thoroughly convinced of his inbred sin, 
of the total corruption of his nature, to take it all away, to 
purify his heart and cleanse him from all unrighteous- 
ness.''— Vol. ii., p. 222. 

8 * 



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NEW YORK PREACHEES' MEETING. 



The true Weslejan doctrine on this subject is simply 
this: That all sincere Christians are constantly growing 
in grace and the knowledge of Christ; that when one 
ray of Divine light enters the soul of man^ that soul differs 
vastly from all souls yet unrenewed ; that this light will 
shine more and more unto the perfect day; that some 
Christians have more light than others ; that God may 
entirely fill the soul at any time ; and that we are to " wait 
for it in all good works/^ 

As in each instant of right living it increases^ so in some 
one instant God will fill the soul with his love^ and sin 
will fade away and die as darkness before the light of per- 
fect day. 

Consciously to the soul the becoming entire of this 
great work of sanctification, like all its previous stages, is 
connected with a development of faith wrought, as Mr. 
Wesley everywhere teaches, by the Holy Spirit in con- 
nection with the truth. 

4. A prevailing error in the presentation of this sub- 
ject is the declaration that it is the will of God that all 
men should be entirely sanctified now. It is certainly the 
will of God that all men should be sanctified now ; that 
the process of sanctification should be going on, and that 
they should be dying to sin, and becoming more and more 
alive unto Christ ; but that it is the will of God that all 
Christians should be entirely sanctified now is a notion 
unsupported by the Scriptures, contradicted by the ex- 
perience of multitudes of earnest Christians, and contrary 
to the views and teachings of Wesley. 

The thorough discussion of this point in all its bearings 
would require far more time than can be devoted to it 
here. Still the main points will be clearly stated and 



SPEECH OF KEY. J. M. BUCKLEY. 



91 



discriminated. It would seem tliat many writers and 
speakers on sanctification have never carefully examined 
either the Scriptures or Mr. Wesley ^s writings, for they 
ignore many important passages in both, and present as 
the teachings of the Bible and of Methodism a distorted 
and contradictory view of truth. Many of them, in quot- 
ing from Wesley, Fletcher, Clark, and others, have been 
at no pains to verify their quotations, nor have they given 
to their readers any clue to the places where the passages 
which they quote may be found. In some instances para- 
graphs are adduced in such a broken and incoherent man- 
ner that the author is made to teach nearly or quite the 
opposite of w^hat he meant to say. If I were to say that 
in the course of this debate such quotations had been 
made it would be considered harsh, and yet I must say 
that such was my impression as the passages were read; 
and as the speakers gave no pages or chapters, it is impos- 
sible to detect and expose their errors. 

There are many parts of Mr. Wesley's writings on this 
subject to which attention should be called. If I am not 
mistaken, those which I am about to present will create 
surprise in many minds. It needs to be constantly kept 
in view that what Mr. Wesley held and what is now fre- 
quently taught are very different doctrines. That it is 
improper and presumptuous to assert that it is the will of 
God tLat all Christians should be entirely sanctified now 
will appear if the following truths are well considered : 

1. We are required to wait for ''entire sanctification'^ 
in a faithful discharge of Christian duty. So taught Mr. 
Wesley : 

^^How are we to wait for this change ? Not in careless 
indifference or indolent inactivity, but in vigorous, uni- 



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NEW YORK PEEACHERS' MEETING. 



versal obedience, a zealous keeping of all the command- 
ments, in watchfulness and painfulness, in denying 
ourselves, and taking up the cross daily, as well as in 
earnest prayer and fasting, and a close attendance on all 
the ordinances of God; and if any man dream of attain- 
ing it any other way (yea, or of keeping it when it is 
attained, when he has received it in even the largest mea- 
sure), he deceiveth his own soul. It is true we receive it 
by simple faith, but God does not, will not give that faith 
unless we seek it with all diligence in the way which he 
hath ordained.^^ — Vol. vi., p. 505. 

The spirit of this passage is, that some will find the 
blessing sooner, others later, but all are to seek and wait 
for it in a faithful discharge of duty; all of which is in 
harmony with human experience. 

2. The faith by which we are sanctified is not a natural 
operation of the mind, but is divine. It is wrought in 
the soul by God. A person may possess an expectation 
of sanctification during his whole life and never know 
sanctifying faith. Expectation is an operation of nature. 
Testimony is presented, and the mind believes or expects, 
as the case may be, without any aid from the Holy Spirit. 
But there is neither converting nor sanctifying power in 
such an expectation. That faith which converts and 
sanctifies is ^^born of God.^^ One brother has stated in 
this debate that he was sanctified by believing what God 
said in the Bible, but not certainly as he believes testi- 
mony (the devils believe all that God says), but with a 
divine faith, a faith wrought by the Holy Ghost. 

We are to expect entire sanctification until God bestows 
it. It may be very near — it may be far. We cannot 
believe unto sanctification until God works that sanctifying 



SPEECH OF EEV. J. M. BUCKLEY. 



93 



faith in our hearts. Meanwhile, if we are waiting for this 
change as Mr. Wesley enjoins in the above passage, we 
have 'Hhe witness of the Spirit that we are the children 
of God. 

That God is sovereign in sanctifying as well as in justi- 
fying, and acts when and how he will, is the doctrine 
which I maintain. 

Let the following passages be carefully examined in all 
their connections, and no perplexity will remain concern- 
ing Mr. "Wesley^s views. Quoting with approbation the 
sentiments of a friend, he says : 

^'^But some who maintain this doctrine to its fullest 
extent are too often guilty of limiting the Almighty. He 
dispenses his gifts just as he pleases; therefore, it is neither 
wise nor modest to affirm that a person must be a believer 
for any length of time before he is capable of receiving a 
high degree of the spirit of holiness. God^s usual method 
is one thing, but his sovereign pleasure is another. He 
has wise reasons both for hastening and retarding his 
work. Sometimes he comes suddenly and unexpected, 
sometimes not till we have long looked for him.^^ — Vol. 
vi., p. 508. 

I call particular attention to the following extracts from 
letters, and to their dates : 

There may be some rare cases wherein God has deter- 
mined not to bestow his perfect love until a little before 
death. But this, I believe, is uncommon.^^ — Letter to 
Miss Furly, September 6, 1758, vol. vi., p. 713. 

Again : No one ever walked in the light as God is 
in the light (I mean in the full sense of the expression) 
till the blood of Christ had cleansed him from all sin. If 



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NEYf YORK PREACHEES' MEETIlsTG. 



we are perfectly saved; it is through his blood. This is 
the plain meaning of the text, and it may be fulfilled in 
you before you sleep. God is sovereign in sanctifying as 
well as justifying. He will act wlien as well as liow he 
pleases, and none can say unto him, "What doest thou?^^— 
Vol. vi., p. 717. 

In 1776 Miss Furly attained the blessing, having been 
seeking it no less than ten years— a fact which confirms 
and illustrates the views above set forth by Mr. Wesley 
and maintained in the present consideration of the subject. 

I now present a case of remarkable interest and clear- 
ness : 

Saturday y 16th, — ^ After preaching, I talked 

with M. B., who has been long a mother in Israel. ^I 
was under strong convictions,^ said she, Svhen twelve or 
thirteen years old, and soon after found peace with God. 
But I lost it by degrees, and then contented myself with 
living a quiet, harmless life till Mr. Charles Wesley came 
to Wednesbury in the year 1742. Soon after this my con- 
victions returned, though not with terror as before, but 
with strong hope, and in a little time I recovered peace 
and joy in believing. This I never lost since but for 
forty-eight hours (by speaking angrily to my child). Not 
long after, Mr. Jones talked particularly with me about 
the wickedness of my heart. I went home in great 
trouble, which did not cease till one day, sitting in my 
house, I heard a voice say in my inmost soul, ^ Be ye holy, 
for I am holy.^ From that hour, for a year and a quarter 
(though I never lost my peace), I did nothing but long, 
and weep, and pray for inward holiness. I was then 
sitting one day, August 23, 1744, about eight in the morn- 
ing, musing and praying as usual, when I seemed to hear 



SPEECH OF EEY. J. M. BUCKLEY. 



95 



a loud voice saying at once to my heart and to my out- 
ward ears, ^ This day shall salvation come to this house/ 
I ran up stairs, and presently the power of God came upon 
me, so that I shook all over like a leaf. Then a voice said, 
^ This day is salvation come to this house.^ At that in- 
stant I felt an entire change ; I was full of love and full 
of God. I had the witness in myself that he had made 
an end of sin, and taken my whole heart for ever; and 
from that moment I have never lost the witness nor 
felt anything in my heart but pure love.^^^ — Vol. iii., 
pp. 624, 625. 

It would appear that this person had a vivid imagina- 
tion, and that such was the state of her nervous system 
that she regarded supposed voices and accidental impres- 
sions as of great moment. She had, however, been ^^long 
a mother in Israel." Mr. Wesley gave her his confidence, 
and it appears that her experience had been very clear. 
Her testimony is that for a year and a quarter she ^^did 
nothing but long, and weep, and pray for inv^ard holi- 
ness," and yet that during that period she never lost her 
peace." The explanation in Mr. "Wesley's language is, 
that ^^God is sovereign in sanctifying as well as justifying^ 
and will act when as well as hoio he pleases." And yet 
there are many special advocates of prevalent viev/s 
attributed to Wesley, who would not have hesitated to tell 
that woman at any time during the year and a quarter 
that it was the will of God that she should be entirely 
sanctified then ! Such is the extent to which zeal, without 
proper discrimination, will obscure the perceptions and 
warp the judgment. 

The evil resulting from erroneous teaching on this point 
cannot be overestim^ated or stated too strongly. Persons 



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NEW YOHK PEEACHERS^ MEETING. 



are seeking entire sanctification^ and are told to believe. 
They do already believe all that God says on that and all 
other subjects, for they are justified, and have the witness 
of the Spirit. Any truth which they could be made to 
see is of God they will believe without effort. They 
already know and believe all the truth there is on the sub- 
ject of entire sanctification. No new truth is presented. 
Still the cry falls on their ears, Believe, believe.^^ This 
is quite absurd. What they need, to be sanctified wholly, 
is a certain summary, spiritual change wrought by the 
Holy Ghost. Self-denial, prayer, meditation, waiting on 
all the ordinances of God, are the only means with which 
we have anything to do. And until the Holy Ghost 
accomplishes the complete transformation, and consum- 
mates the work which has been gradually going on "ever 
since the moment of justification,^^ spasmodic efforts to 
believe are as useless as would be spasmodic efforts to hear 
with the eye or see with the ear, or for an unregenerate soul 
in this way to believe itself renewed in love. 

I admit that the real work of the Holy Ghost is often 
carried on, while the teaching is erroneous both on rege- 
neration and entire sanctification; and also, that persons 
who are truly regenerate and even entirely sanctified, may 
entertain and propagate dangerous errors concerning their 
own experienpe in attaining these blessings. But usually 
such views as those now examined lead to an abnormal 
condition of soul which is never remedied. By spasmodic 
efforts to believe (what, the deluded person hardly knows) 
the idea that he is sanctified is reached, and reached with- 
out any corresponding moral and spiritual change. 
Hence follows very positive professions, attended by very 
strange conduct, with a tendency to fanatic heat and self- 



SPEECH OF KEY. J. M. BUCKLEY. 



97 



righteousness^ particularly if opposed and called in ques- 
tion^ though in many instances there is a tendency to 
religious exclusiveness and reserve which seems to the 
individuals themselves to be humility, but is not so. 
Now, the only difference between such persons before and 
after they obtain the idea that they are entirely sanctified 
is, that before they had not, and afterwards they have, 
that idea, with the natural results of such a belief. 
Again, many pious persons who are seeking entire sancti- 
fication become discouraged, which takes place thus : they 
know that they are conscientious ; the Holy Spirit witnesses 
with their spirit that they are the children of God. They 
feel that they are seeking the experience of entire sancti- 
fication with all their hearts. They are told that it is the 
wall of God that they should be entirely sanctified now, 
but they are not. Time passes; the Spirit witnesses, and 
the teachers of error continually cry that it is the will of 
God that they should be sanctified now. Here is an irre- 
concilable condition — the result being discouragement, 
unless, indeed, the Holy Ghost, in the exercise of that 
sovereignty of which Mr. Wesley speaks, accomplishes 
the work, or that abnormal condition above described 
results, and they believe and stoutly maintain that they 
are entirely sanctified. But let the true AYesleyan doc- 
trine be taught, and none of these miserable results wdli 
follow. That doctrine is this : You are to believe that 
you are to be entirely sanctified. You are to wait for it, 
strive for it, deny self for it, pray for it. It may come 
to-day, this hour, or next week, for God is sovereign in 
sanctifying as y/ell as justifying but press on, ^^forget- 
ting the things that are behind,^^ and you are enjoying 
just that measure of knowledge, purity, and joy which 
9 



98 



NEW YORK preachers' MEETING. 



God designs for you at the present time. But^ in oppo- 
sition to this, there are some who would assure one who 
has been seeking entire sanctification for days, weeks, 
months, or years, that ^4ie is no nearer to it than when he 
commenced.'' 

5. The sanctifying influence of affliction is also often 
overlooked. 

Now, the Scriptures dwell on this influence, and declare 
it indispensable — in some cases at least. 1 Peter v. 10 : 
But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his 
eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered 
a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you." 

Now, it is certainly wrong for us to attempt to deter- 
mine whether any more affliction is necessary for our 
entire sanctification, or if any, how much and of what 
kind; and if we were to do so, ^^it would prove that we 
were not seeking it by the way of faith." The provi- 
dence of God will determine these questions, and we shall 
ascertain as that providence is unfolded. But if this be 
true, what a proof it affords of the folly and presumption 
of those who so confidently assert that the entire sancti- 
fication of all men is willed by God at the present or at 
any particular instant of time. I ask you to examine on 
this point the following extracts from three precious letters 
of Mr. Wesley to Miss Loxdale : 

It is by doing and suffering the will of our Lord that 
we grow up in him who is our head." — Vol. vii., p. 221. 

Again, on the same page, December 15th: 

^^The trials you have lately undergone were all in- 
stances of the goodness of God, who permitted them j 
merely for your profit, that you might be more largely \ 
partaker of his holiness. You know our blessed Lord ! 



SPEECH OF EEV. J. M. BUCKLEY. 



99 



himself, as man, learned obedience by the things that he 
suffered/^ 

Again, on the same page, March 9th, 1782: 
My dear Miss Loxdale : — Gold is tried in the fire 
and acceptable men in the furnace of adversity. You 
say, ' I know not whither I am going/ I will tell you 
whither. You are going the straight way to be swallowed 
up in God. ^ I know not what I am doing.^ You are 
suffering the will of God, and glorifying him in the fire. 
^But I am not increasing in the divine life.^ That is your 
mistake. Perhaps you are now increasing therein faster 
than ever you did since you w^ere justified. It is true that 
the usual method of our Lord is to purify us by joy in the 
Holy Ghost and a full consciousness of his love. But I 
have known several exempt caseSy and I am clearly satisfied 
yours is one, and — 

^ Far, far above tliy thoiiglit 
His counsel shall appear, ^ 
When fully He the work hath wrought 
That caused thy needless fear.' " 

How fully all this harmonizes with the experience of 
Dr. Olin, wdio says in one of his letters ! — 

I had difficulties respecting our ow^n theoretical views 
of the doctrine of perfect love. I even joined the Con- 
ference with exceptions to it, and stated my objections, 
when a candidate, before the whole body. But I w^as ad- 
mitted, the Conference expressing the hope that further 
inquiries w^ould rectify my views. Years, how^ever, passed 
without any modification of my opinions. But it pleased 
God to lead me into the truth. My health failed, my offi- 
cial employments had to be abandoned. I lost my chil- 
dren ; my wife died, and I was wandering over the world 



100 NEW YOBK PREACHEES' MEETING. 

alone^ v/ith scarcely anything remaining but God. I lost 
my hold on all things else^ and became as it were lost 
myself in God. My affections centred in him. My Avill 
became absorbed in his. I sunk as it were into the bless- 
ing of perfect love^ and found in my own consciousness 
the reality of the doctrine which I had theoretically 
doubted.^^ 

That Mr. Wesley did not speak more frequently on this 
point arose from the fact that when affliction has had -^its 
perfect work/^ and by the operation of the Holy Ghost in 
connection therewith^ and with the ordinary means of 
grace^ we are entirely sanctified^ faith is to the conscious- 
ness the instrument of the mighty work. There is no 
greater difficulty in apprehending the relation of faith to 
affliction than to any of the means of grace. Another 
reason why Mr. Wesley did not dwell more frequently on 
the sanctifying influence of affliction is^ that it did not 
enter into the controversies which he held. Here the dis- 
cussion turned on faith. These remarks are made not as 
though Mr. Wesley had not admitted or dwelt at all 
upon the relation of affliction to sanctification — for the let- 
ters above quoted show that his views harmonized v>^ith 
the Scriptures and with human experience on the point — 
but to explain why he did not give it as conspicuous a 
place in his writings as it has in the Scriptures. 

It is true that Mr. Wesley declares that " we are seek- 
ing it by works if we wait to suffer more;" and if we 
take it for granted that we must endure or bear more, and 
relax our efforts and cease to expect it, we are seeking it 
by works just as if we were to say that we had not given 
enough to the cause of missions or had not read the word 
of God enough ; we would be seeking it by works. But 



SPEECH OF EEY. J. M. BUCKLEY. 



101 



if we recognize God as having affliction in his hands^ and 
operating upon us by it as he operates by his Spirit while 
we are discharging every duty^ and thus waiting on aU 
the ordinances of God/^ we are seeking it by faith — foi 
what is our recognition of God^s hand in affliction but 
faith? In this sense we are not seeking it by works when 
we wait (if the will of God be so) to suffer a while be- 
fore we are made perfect more than when we wait for the 
descent of the Holy Ghost. 

Here y/e close this part of the discussion. The preach- 
ing of errors on all these points has tended mightily to 
confuse the people and prejudice their minds on this sub- 
ject^ while it has deterred many from examining and em- 
bracing the consistent and scriptural views of Mr. Wesley, 
and, it is to be feared, from embracing the inestimable bless- 
ing which is offered to them in the gospel. 

I turn now, secondly, to touch two or three practical 
points : 

1. The inconsistent conduct of many leading advocates 
and professors of this experience has exerted a baleful 
influence. 

A most astonishing consideration has been propounded 
in this debate. It was said that Whatever is radically 
inconsistent with entire sanctincation is radically incon- 
sistent with justification.^^ 

This strange notion is contradicted by the language of 
Christ to his disciples, in which he charges them with hard- 
ness of heart, littleness of faith, and v/orldly-mindedness ; 
by the letters of St. Paul to the Churches, in which he 
so sternly reproves them ; and by the epistles to the Seven 
Churches, nearly all of whom, though still owned as 
churches, and in many respects approved, have much that 
9* 



102 IS^EW YORK PREACHEES' MEETING. 

is inconsistent with entire sanctification. There are two 
principles in the justified^ and the law of acceptance is 
liabitual victory; but the passions may occasionally 
triumph. The regenerate state and the blood of the 
atonement cover these things^ and unless he apostatizes 
the principle of grace soon reasserts itself and assumes 
its accustomed control. And yet such temporary triumphs 
of the passions and fallings into sin would be radically 
inconsistent with entire sanctification/^ while they are not 
necessarily so with justification. 

A denial of this contradicts the experience of all Chris- 
tians who have not been entirely sanctified^ and also con- 
founds regeneration and sanctification. It is in substance 
the old heresy of Count Zinzendorf^ which Mr. Wesley so 
strongly denounced ^Sveak faith.^^ The risings of pride 
or anger, the conscious lack of full love, though the con- 
sciousness of a considerable degree of love continually 
exists, are all radically inconsistent with entire sancti- 
fication/^ though not so with justification. 

The question, reduced to its lowest terms, is this — 

Do all children of God and heirs of grace Avho are not 
entirely sanctified live without sin in tJiought, word, and 
deedf Who will affirm that they do? But is any degree 
of sin, however slight, not radically inconsistent with 
entire sanctification?^^ 

I refer, then, to virulence in discussion in papers and 
magazines, to censoriousness and malice in private life, to 
the universal conduct of many leading advocates of par- 
ticular phases of doctrine on this subject, to the use of 
tobacco by men and women who conspicuously profess this 
exalted attainment (I grant that in some cases this may 
be a simple error of judgment, but even then it operates 



SPEECH OF EEV. J. M. BUCKLEY. 



103 



powerfully in prejudicing persons on the subject)^ the acri- 
mony and studied malice^ the contrivance of stinging 
insults, sometimes combined with an audacious profession 
of entire sanctification, and many other forms of incon- 
sistent conduct in word and act, as having thoroughly set 
many worthy persons against a consideration of this sub- 
ject. These mournful facts have led good men to say that 
" the unsanctilied sanctified are the most dangerous class 
in the Church/^ and induced an eminent man, much 
blessed in revivals, to say with sorrow, "These are the 
persons that fill the minds of our people with practical 
infidelity." I am not justifying a prejudice against the 
doctrine on this ground, but accounting for it. I know 
that mankind in general, and those who are anxious to 
find excuses for not pressing forward in the divine life, 
are prone to confound errors of judgment and defects of 
taste with actual sins, and thus that professors of sancti- 
fication are occasionally, and perhaps frequently, unjustly 
criticised. I know, also, and earnestly maintain that 
there have been, and still are in different parts of the 
country, persons against whom no charge can be brought, 
who impress all who know them with a conviction of the 
truth both of the possibility and the inestimable desirable- 
ness of salvation from all sin in this life. These, however, 
so far as my observation has extended, have, with a very 
few exceptions, observed the advice given by Mr. Wesley : 
"Be particularly careful in speaking of yourself. You 
may not, indeed, deny the work of God, but speak of it 
where you are called thereto in the most inoffensive man- 
ner possible. Avoid all magnificent, pompous words; 
indeed, you need give it no general name — neither perfec- 
tion, sanctification, the second blessing, nor the having 



104 



NEW YOEK PEEACHEES' MEETIKG. 



attained. Eatlier speak of the particulars wliich God has 
wrought for you/^ — ^Vol. vi., p. 524. 

Hence^ they have done but little to counteract the evil 
eliects of improper profession as to the persons professing^ 
and as to the time and the manner of the profession. [The 
discussion of the propriety and utility of special meetings, 
special anxious-seats, and special invitations of all kinds 
for ^Hhe promotion of holiness/^ which here followed, is 
omitted, as it occupied considerable time, and is relatively 
of minor importance. It may be observed, however, that 
the ground taken was that they are needless, in most cases 
useless; that they encourage superstitious views of the 
anxious-seat; that they confuse the minds of the irreligious; 
that they erect improper distinctions in the Church of 
Christ; that frequently they overlook the fact that the 
very best vfay to seek for entire sanctification is to labor 
in the ordinary way for the conversion of souls; and that, 
taken in connection with the erroneous teachings hereto- 
fore considered, they promote a species of excitement un- 
favorable to that clear discrimination necessary to a full 
understanding of those higher spiritual changes which are 
sought, and naturally tending to the production of the 
mere idea that entire sanctification has taken place, and 
should be professed.] 

In answer, then, to the question. How may we best pro- 
mote the experience of perfect love among our members? 
I would respond. Let us preach the truth, let us observe 
Mr. Wesley's cautions in our manner of preaching it, let 
us earnestly seek for entire deliverance from sin, let us 
strive to attain unimpeachable consistency of conduct, let 
us discourage improper profession, and do all that we can 
to enlighten the minds of our people on this great and 



SPEECH OF HEV. J. M. BUCKLEY. 



105 



glorious theme. As to the possibility of the experience, 
though I cannot condemn others for doubting it, I can 
never do so, for in the providence of God I have been in- 
timately associated with one or two persons whose powers 
of discrimination, calmness of spirit, and perfect consis- 
tency of character and conduct in many trying circum- 
stances, together with their abiding peace and perfect 
triumph over self and sin, have wrought in me a convic- 
tion that they were made perfect in love, and faith, and 
patience, and in every Christian grace. 



VI. 



m AND SALVATION. 
A SERMON BY BISHOP JANES. 

Preached at the Newark Conference Camp-meeting, at Morristown, New 
Jersey, on Sunday morning, August 18, ISG?."^ 

^^If we say %ve have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in ws. 
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to 
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make 
Him a liar, and His word is not in usJ^ — 1 Jolin i. 8-10. 

THE foundation-subject of this passage of Holy Scrip- 
ture is sin — human depravity and human guilt. 
Concerning this subject, the text makes three statements: 
First, that we are all involved in sin, both in its depravity 
and in its criminality. The second statement is that there 
is a conditional salvation offered, and the nature of that 
salvation and the condition are specified. The third state- 
ment is that if we say we have not sinned, we make God 
a liar, and his word is not in us. May we have your at- 
tention to the first of these topics ? It is set forth in this 
language : If we say that we have no sin, we deceive 
ourselves, and the truth is not in us.^^ This is the very 
strongest form in which it would be possible to make the 
utterance that we have all of us become guilty before God. 
Any man who denies this deceives himself, and the truth 
is not in him; because the truth is that he has sinned. 

"Keported by Samuel M. Stiles, and subsequently revised by 
Bishop Janes. 
106 



SEEMON BY BISHOP JANES. 



107 



The fact is that he has a sinful nature — that he is de- 
praved in character and guilty in conduct. 

Now, this fact that we have sinned implies that there 
is a legitimate authority over us, and that that authority 
has given to us an appropriate law; in other words, that 
we are under government, and that, being placed under 
government, we are moral agents, we are capable of obey- 
ing the Divine precepts, or we have the power to refuse 
such obedience; and certainly this implication is most 
true in all cases. We are not irresponsible beings. There 
is one whose right it is to reign over us — the God that 
made us, the Being in whom we have our being, and from 
whom we have our blessings. He who is God over all, 
blessed for evermore,^^ is our rightful Lord and Sovereign. 
He has an unquestionable right to prescribe the rules of 
our conduct, the manner of our life, and to hold us ac- 
countable to himself for a compliance with his law. 

Possessed of this sovereignty, being thus rightfully our 
Lord and God, he has given us a law, and this law we 
claim is befitting our character and his authority. A law 
was given to Adam ; he transgressed that law, and in his 
representative character involved the race in the conse- 
quences of his transgression. "When we were thus by 
one federal head involved in the consequences of his sin, 
God, in his infinite mercy, provided for us a Redeemer 
and Saviour, and through the mediation of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, we have our probationary estate, our pro- 
bationary circumstances ; and in these circumstances we 
have precepts and requirements varying somewhat from 
those given to Adam in his perfect estate — God, in the 
wonders of his love, adapting his law to the character 
and capacity of the subjects of his government. 



108 



SIN AND SALVATION. 



The Gospel^ nevertheless^ is a law; it has its precepts; 
it has its requirements; it has its sanctions; and in every 
respect is it a law. But^ inasmuch as, owing to our lapsed 
estate, we are incapable of rendering to God that perfect 
obedience which Adam could have rendered, God now 
permits us to fulfill this law by loving him with our might 
and mind and strength. And when we love him with 
all our heart, there will be found in that love an inspira- 
tion to all duty and to all devotion. It will incline us to 
every principle and precept which is laid down in the 
word of God. We shall be ready for all service, for all 
sacrifice, for all duty, for all obedience. If, then, under 
the Gospel dispensation — our dispensation under this cov- 
enant of grace in which we are placed — we fail, through 
our Lord Jesus Christ, and the assistance of God's truth 
and Spirit, to love him with all our power, and conse- 
quently to serve him with all our ability, then our whole 
character and conduct are criminal before him. We need 
not specify men's transgressions ; we need not to-day accuse 
you of profaning the name of God; of violating his holy 
Sabbath; of breaking his commandments. The great 
fact that makes us criminal before him is the one I have 
referred to — that v/e have failed to avail ourselves of the 
provisions of his grace, to obtain a character that shall 
itself incline us to a life of conformity to his will and 
word. 

Our impenitence, our neglect of God, our failing to 
accept Christ, our not receiving the gift of the Holy 
Ghost, our not becoming good, our not living right — here 
is the great offence, here is the sum of all sin, as it is the 
root of all evil, in our hearts and lives. We might have 
been saved from them. It is our crime that we remain 



SEEMON BY BISHOP JANES. 



109 



in them. As the Apostle says in our text : " If we say 
we have no sin^ we deceive ourselves, and the truth is 
not in us.'^ Our outward morality, our formal services, 
are not meeting our obligations to God. It is the 
love, inspired obedience, and devotion, and consecration 
to him of hearts and service that meet our obligations and 
conform us to the principles and precepts of the Gospel 
of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Let me ask your attention for a moment to the extent 
of this law — to its spirituality. As we have just inti- 
mated, it does not merely refer to the outward conduct. 
It takes cognizance of our moral state; our motives; 
our spirit; our thoughts; our words; our negligences; 
our want of conformity, as well as our transgressions; and 
now, when we look at our hearts and see our vain 
thoughts and sinful motives — at least our mixed and im- 
perfect motives — our negligences; how we have failed of 
our obligations to our God, and even to our own soul ; 
how we have misspent probationary time; failed to attain 
the image of God and the mind of Christ, and prepared- 
ness for his fellowship here and his fruition hereafter — oh 
how our sinfulness comes up before our mind ! how great 
our criminality before God ! And when we consider the 
character of him against whom we have sinned ; the right- 
fulness of his authority; the wonderfulness of his love; 
the greatness of his forbearance; the tenderness of his 
entreaties, and remember we have sinned despite all his 
goodness and grace — how aggravated are our sins ! how 
terrible the turpitude of our guilt in his sight! 

Need we call your attention to the consequences of this 
sinning? Does not the depravity of your heart; the 
worldliness of your spirit; your love of sin; your love 

10 



110 



SIH AND SALVATION. 



of sensuality — does it not disqualify you to live in fellow- 
ship with the High and the Holy here on earth? Can you, 
with your heart unregenerate, and at enmity against God, 
can you here worship him, and commune with him, and 
walk with him? And if you cannot have communion 
with him here, how can you hereafter? Does not the 
inflexible law of aiflnity send you to hell? Does it not 
itself banish you from God and the glory of his power? 
Is it not a thing impossible for the unregenerate sinner to 
find his dwelling and his happiness in the presence, and 
holiness, and spirituality of the Divine and Eternal? 

Your own reflections and feelings will satisfy you that 
in your unregenerate character you cannot be with God 
and the good. Philosophy of itself settles the question 
of your condemnation. But, then, what saith the word 
of God? ^^The wages of sin is death.^^ ^^The wicked 
shall be turned into hell, with all the nations that forget 
God.^^ How terrific, and oh how pitiful is the condi- 
tion of the unforgiven and unregenerate sinner! Unlike 
God ; alienated from God ; disqualified for his presence ; 
unfit for his glory! The two characters are so opposite 
that they cannot be in harmony; the two natures so dif- 
ferent that they cannot be enjoyed by each other. There 
must be a separation, and where, oh where in the uni- 
verse is there happiness out of God? Banished from his 
presence, from the glory of his power, where, oh where 
shall thy rational, immortal spirit find happiness? 

Is there, then, a way of return to God? Can the un- 
holy and the guilty be restored to the Divine favor? Can 
one w^ho has made himself liable to the displeasure of God, 
who has incurred the condemnation of the law of God — 
can one under sentence of death find deliverance and re- 



SERMON BY BISHOP JAKES. 



Ill 



storation? Now, this is the question of questions. Is 
there salvation from our sins? Is there escape from the 
consequeuces of our sins? I repeat it, this is the ques- 
tion of all questions. How can guilty man be just before 
God? How can sinful men enter into the fellowship and 
fruition of God ? This is the question. Thank God, he 
himself has furnished the answer: ^^If we confess our sins, 
he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse 
us from all unrighteousness.^^ 

Now, here is the nature and the condition of our salva- 
tion. We are unholy, and we are guilty. The salvation 
of the Gospel provides a deliverance from both these. It 
provides pardon for our sins, our guilt, and sanctification 
for our nature, for our soul. ^^He is faithful and just to 
forgive us our sins.^^ Oh ! how sweetly this truth sounds 
in our ears. " There is forgiveness with thee that thou 
mayest be feared.^^ And this is the great need of our 
guilty souls. We cannot atone for our sins. We cannot 
expiate our guilt. We have no merit by which we can 
render to God a satisfaction for our sins. If, then, we are 
saved from our sins, it must be an act of clemency ; it must 
be an exercise of pardoning mercy on the part of the God 
we have offended. 

In addition to this, he will cleanse us from all un- 
righteousness.^^ "All unrighteousness is sin." If we are 
cleansed from all unrighteousness, then we are cleansed 
from all sin. We state it in a summary manner, that our 
hearts are not in a state of conformity to the will of God, 
and that want of conformity to the Divine will is our great 
crime. The fact that we continue to carry with us these 
hearts which are " deceitful above all things, and despe- 
rately wicked f that we carry with us this moral disease 



112 



SIN AND SALVATION. 



when a remedy is provided and proffered — this, we re- 
peat, is our great offence before God. 

When we confess our sins and receive pardon, we know 
our guilt is removed. We then need this further grace — ■ 
the transformation of our souls. For, if our sinfulness 
disqualifies us for the enjoyment of God; if it unfits us 
for heaven — excludes us from heaven — then it does not 
meet our case that our sins are pardoned. In addition to 
that, we must have the transformation of our souls — ^^the 
washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy 
Ghost.^^ Now, this is a provision of the Gospel — the for- 
giveness of our sins, and the cleansing of our spirits from 
all unrighteousness, all sinfulness; removing our condem- 
nation, and thereby changing our relation to God, and 
transforming our souls, so that we partake of the Divine 
nature; and from being alienated from him, bringing us 
back to fellowship with him, to the fruition of him. Nov/, 
this is the religion of our Lord Jesus Christ — the salva- 
tion of our God in Christ. 

But what is the condition upon which we receive this 
salvation? ^^If we confess our sins, he is faithful and 
just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all un- 
righteousness.^^ You will find, in reading the Scriptures, 
that a single term is usually employed to represent the 
condition of our salvation. It is sometimes, Except ye 
repent ye shall perish.^^ Again: ^^He that believeth shall 
be saved; he that believeth not shall be damned.^^ In 
our text it reads: ^^If Yie confess our sins, he is faithful 
and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all 
unrighteousness.^^ 

That there is a reason why the Scriptures thus employ 
one term to represent the duty of the sinner in seeking 



SEEMON BY BISHOP JANES. 



113 



salvation is manifest. If every time this subject was re- 
ferred to the Scriptures went into the whole round of these 
terms^ you can see how voluminous would have become 
the word of God. Again, each one of these conditions 
or terms involves the others. It was not, therefore, 
necessary that they should all be repeated, for each one 
involves the whole. A man cannot believe who is impeni- 
tent. He must repent in order to believe. And a man 
cannot confess his sins without repentance; and if he con- 
fess them aright, he will also do it with faith. This one 
expression, therefore, is sufficient to represent to us the 
whole condition of our return to God through our Lord 
Jesus Christ. 

A confession of our sins implies a knowledge of our 
sins — a knowledge of our depravity, the impurity of our 
hearts, the sinfulness of our natures, our proneness to 
evil — and also some knowledge of the many and gross 
and culpable offences which we have committed against 
God. 

Now, we obtain this knowledge in part from the law. 
^^By the law is the knowledge of sin.^^ The apostle says: 
" The law came, and sin revived, and I died." When he 
saw what the law required, how frequently and criminally 
he had transgressed that law, sin revived; he felt guilty, 
condemned, and he died. It gave him to feel that in 
himself there was no spiritual life and hope. The law 
is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ." 

Perhaps, however, our clearest and strongest conviction 
of sin rises from the knowledge of God; from a just con- 
ception of the character, and perfections, and attributes 
of him with whom we have to do. When we see his 
awful majesty; when we see his infinite purity; that he is 
10* 



114 



SIX AND SALVATION. 



a God of such majesty and sucli lioliness; that he is fear- 
ful even in praises — then it is that Ave see how unfit we 
are to come before him, to dwell with him ; how disquali- 
fied for his worship and service. And hence Job says : 
^^I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but 
now — being illumined by the providence and Spirit of 
God — ^^my eye seeth thee; wherefore, I abhor myself, and 
repent in dust and ashes.^^ It is this view of God, this 
knowledge of the Divine Being, that overwhelms us with 
a consciousness of our sinfulness and condemnation. 
Isaiah had the same experience when he said, "Woe is 
me, for I am undone; for I am a man of unclean lips, 
and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.^^ 
How do you know that, Isaiah? "What has given you 
this conviction of it? Why this vivid apprehension of 
it? Why this overwhelming terror in view of it? "For 
mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.^^ It 
w^as a vision of God, in the light of which, by contrast, he 
saw himself as impure, sinful, guilty. 

And this is one of the most powerful effects of preach- 
ing the cross. When God is seen so hating sin, so zealous 
of his law, that he will inflict punishment, even unto 
death upon the cross, upon his own and well-beloved Son, 
oh how abhorrent to God must sin be! And if it be 
so heinous in his sight as to make him inflict punish- 
ment upon his own beloved Son, how can the sinner 
escape who refuses to receive salvation through the atone- 
ment made? We repeat it, a confession of sin implies a 
just knowledge of sin — some conception of the number 
and turpitude of our crimes before God. It also implies 
that we recognize God's authority and the holiness of 
God's law. Now, when a man who sees his sinfulness, 



SEEMOJSr BY BISHOP JANES. 



115 



who feels it^ is troubled on account of it^ begins to wonder 
why God made such a law and such requirements, and 
begins to quarrel with the law and his circumstances, and 
to palliate his guilt, and apologize to his conscience for his 
sins, he is not in the spirit of confession ; he fights against 
God all the while. He who truly confesses his sins ac- 
knowledges God's authority over him as just, and right, 
and lawful, the demands of the law as proper and suit- 
able, and he acknowledges his crime a voluntary one, and 
that he is therefore justly condemned, criminal in his own 
eyes and in the eyes of that authority with whom he has 
to do. 

Until we come to this spirit, making acknowledgment 
of the goodness, the justice, the righteousness, the holiness, 
the mercy, the benignity of Almighty God in this govern- 
ment which he sways over us, and until we acknowledge 
the law to be just what we ought to have — that its require- 
ments are all suitable, and fitting our character and con- 
dition, as well as the Divine Authority — are we prepared 
to make the humble, contrite confession before God which 
the text requires, and to receive the blessing to which the 
text refers? 

Again, this confession implies a hatred of sin, an aver- 
sion to it, which is so strong and governing as to lead us, 
when we confess, to forsake sin. It is not until we cease 
to do evil and learn to do welP^ that our confession can 
be received of God. Understand, there can be no decep- 
tion here. The God with whom we are transacting busi- 
ness is the Searcher of hearts. His omniscient eye 
pervades every recess of thy nature; and the least work- 
ings of the spirit are known to him. There can be nc 
trifling with God. We must, then, while we confess the 



116 SIN AND SALVATION. 

errors of the past, acknowledge the sins we have com* 
mitted, cease to do evil, not continue to repeat our offences, 
and go on in our rebellion, fighting against God, and ac- 
knowledging the wrong in the past. There must be 
reformation where there is acceptable confession. 

One other thought here. Our confession of sin implies 
that we are conscious that we cannot save ourselves from 
it, and are willing and desirous and anxious to be saved 
through our Lord Jesus Christ. Our knowledge of sin 
must be so full, and our confession of its guilt so deep, 
that we must see that in us there is no good thing; that 
we have no merits; that we are dependent absolutely for 
our justification before God upon the merits of another; 
and we must be willing to accept the vicarious sacrifice 
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and, renouncing 
our own merits and dependences, despairing of self-saving, 
trust ourselves to Him who is the Redeemer of souls, our 
Mediator with God, and who can save to the uttermost. 

When we have this clear conviction of our wickedness 
and sinfulness — when we acknowledge the authority of 
God, and the holiness and appropriateness of his law, and 
when our sense of sin is so painful to us, when our hatred 
is so intense, that it leads us to forsake and turn from it, 
and when our conviction of guilt and helplessness is so 
full and overwhelming that we despair of saving our- 
selves, and make confession to God — not of every trans- 
gression committed, for we cannot number them, but con- 
fess the sinfulness of our hearts and the guiltiness of our ' 
lives, we cry out for help in the name of our Lord Jesus 
Christ — then we have fulfilled to us the promise that he 
^^will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unright- 
eousness.^^ 



SERMON BY BISHOP JANES. 



117 



And now, for our encouragement, we ask your atten- 
tion to these expressions of the text: ^^He is faithful 
and just^^ to do this for us. He is faithful to Christ and 
faithful to us. 

When, in the counsels of eternity, the Lord Jesus 
Christ, the Second Person in the Trinity, consented to 
become incarnate to obey this law, to be a sacrifice for the 
sins of the world, to taste death for every man, it was 
with this covenant, that they that confess their sins and 
accept Christ shall be saved. And God the Father is 
faithful to the promise made to the Lord Jesus Christ in 
this covenant. In this Christ sees the travail of his soul, 
and is satisfied. 

He is faithful to us because our relation to him is a 
covenant relation ; and because he is unchangeable, God 
keeps this covenant with the cbildren of men. The cov- 
enant is, that if they confess their sins he will forgive 
them. If they confess their sins and accept of the atone- 
ment of Christ and the office of the Holy Ghost, he will 
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

Seek, and ye shall find. Ask, and ye shall receive. 
Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. This is the 
covenant of God ; and he is faithful to it. If,^^ then, 
^^we confess our sins, he is faithful to forgive us our sins, 
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.^^ 

But, more than this, he is just also. And now I want 
to call the attention of this waiting multitude to this fact, 
that the difficulties in the way of our salvation are not 
found in the paternal heart of God. 

The question of our salvation is a governmental one. 

As our heavenly Father, as our Maker, God is faith- 
ful to all his covenant obligations and paternal obligations. 



118 



SIN AND SALVATION. 



But our heavenly Father is also our Lord, our Sovereign. 
And he is not only our Lord and Sovereign : he is the 
Lord of lords, the King of kings. He is the Sovereign 
of this universe; and angel and archangel, all spirits, all 
intelligent existences, are subject to him as their Sove- 
reign; all owe allegiance to the same throne; all have 
swayed over them the same sceptre, and consequently his 
government must be one of authority and harmony 
throughout the universe. 

ISTovf, there can be no government where law is not 
maintained ; and law can only be maintained by enforcing 
its sanctions. If the government of this State were to 
pardon every criminal convicted in our courts, there would 
be no government in the State; no respect for law; no 
regard for authority — all would be anarchy. If the chief 
Executive of our nation shall forgive every offender, there 
will be no national government. Everything will be in- 
volved in confusion and disorder, and there will be no 
authority. Human passion will rage. Might only will 
control the circumstances of the nation. There is no law, 
no government, where the sanctions of the law are not 
maintained. God will never be dethroned; and, as long 
as he is enthroned, sin will be punished in all his realm. 
How, then, oh how then, can guilty men become just 
before God? 

What can be the import of the text? ^^He is just to 
forgive us our sins.^^ Where is the maintenance of the 
law? where the demand of authority? where the interests 
of the universe? Is it possible to maintain these, I ask, 
without sanctions? A great many men make much ado 
about the paternal love of God, and the fatherhood of 
God, and about the father banishing the child. I wish 



SERMON BY BISHOP JAIs^ES. 



119 



to fix your attention again upon a fact before stated. The 
Father sustains also the relation of Sovereign. He sus- 
tains these two relations^ and he can only do as a father 
what he can do as a sovereign. Fix that in your mind. 
History gives us this account: One of the ancient nations 
passed a law that the man who committed a certain crime 
should have both eyes put out. One of the offenders of 
that law was the son of the sovereign. It became a ques- 
tion of intense national interest whether the sovereign 
would act the parent or the king. That was the question 
that agitated and interested the nation. The day of ex- 
ecution arrived. The father was there. The son was 
seated. The operation commenced. One eye is taken 
from his son. At that instant the father sat down and 
commanded the executioner to take out one of his own 
eyes^ and spare the other of his son. It w^as done, and 
the nation said : The law has been sustained ; all its re- 
quirements have been preserved. He acted both the 
father and the king. He maintained his authority. He 
did it by vicarious suffering. A few years ago a son of a 
governor of one of these States was arrested and indicted 
for murder. Of course, the question went through the 
commonwealth: What will the governor do? Will he 
allow justice to take its course? Can he sign the death- 
w^arrant of his own son?^^ And that question was not 
confined merely to the people of that State. It became a 
question in all the States : " What will the governor do 
Well, he did this : Just before the time of the trial came 
on, he resigned his office and allowed the lieutenant- 
governor to take his place and carry out the law. That 
was government and parental goodness both. Now, God, 
in his infinite mercy, maintains his authority, the exist- 



120 



SIN AND SALVATION. 



ence of his government^ and yet provides that the sinner 
may live. He has done this by giving for our sins a sac- 
rifice^ an oblation^ which meets all the claims of the law, 
and all the claims of sovereignty; so that now God is just 
to himself when he forgives the sinner. hen, in view 
of the vicarious sacrifice provided, he forgives our sins, 
he is just to himself; every attribute of his character, and 
every authority involved in his relation to us, are all sat- 
isfied, and yet the sinner is saved. 

More than this, he is just to us. Having received his 
word and his Spirit, we have had hope awakened in our 
souls ; we have had an expectation that if we confess our 
sins, God will forgive us. It is true there was an hour 
of great despondency. Oh how dark and almost hope- 
less was that hour of repentance, when we were drinking 
the wormwood and the gall ! When confessing our sins 
and deploring our guilt, oh how dark ! But yet we kept 
confessing; hope kept rising; expectation kept strengthen- 
ing, until our souls became full of hope and expectation 
and confidence, and God was just to all these hopes and 
expectations when, for Christ's sake, he said, Thy sins, 
which were many, are all forgiven thee.'^ 

He is just to the wicked. There is no -injustice with 
God because a part of his creation are happy and a part 
under condemnation. There is no injustice on the part 
of God because a portion of those who have died are with 
him in glory and another portion in hell. God gave them 
the same offer — made them the same overtures. Jesus 
Christ tasted death for my guilty brethren here this morn- 
ing just as much as for those who rejoice in his pardon- 
ing love. He did not do you any wrong when he for- 
gave me; he is just as willing to forgive you; and if you 



SERMON BY BISHOP JANES. 



121 



dre so unhappy as to make your bed in hell — to awake 
amid the lurid light of damnation — the justice of God 
vdll break upon your soul in such clear and strong con- 
victions that you will say then^ in your rage and torment, 
God is just." 

He does the devils in hell no injustice when he forgives 
tlie repentant sinner, nor angels in heaven. He is just 
to every other subject of his universal dominion when he 
pardons our sins. And I want to impress this thought 
upon your mind, that when God pardons a sinner, every 
being in the moral universe is interested in that transac- 
tion. If the President of the United States pardons a 
sinner against the law of the nation, every citizen is in- 
terested in that transaction. And so with God when he 
pardons our sins ; there is not a spirit in heaven or perdi- 
tion, there is not a man upon earth, who is not interested 
in this governmental act of our God and their God. Oh 
how transcendant is this event which concerns the uni- 
verse! Not merely concerning my individual acts, my 
soul, my destiny, and my God ; but my pardon, my sal- 
vation, being a govermental question, interests all other 
intellectual beings — all existences throughout the whole 
realm of this universe. Oh how awful, and grand, and 
beautiful, and sweet, and sacred is the transaction when 
God, being just, justifies the sinner that believes in Christ! 
He is just to all the universe. 

And I hope to keep this thought in your minds after 

we have separated from this place, that this question of 

salvation is a governmental question. Away with this 

whimpering and whining about the paternal love of God, 

and the threatenings of the Bible, and prejudice against 

the law, because God is your Father. So he is, and he is 
11 



122 



SIN AND SALVATION. 



your Sovereign too. While you rejoice in the paternal 
relation of God^ oh tremble^ guilty ^aan ! he is your Judge, 
and from him you are to receive the destinies of the eter- 
nal world; and while you have the opportunity, make 
your peace with God, and become his — not by creative 
goodness only, but oh become his child by his adopting 
love through our Lord Jesus Christ. 

"Well, if we confess our sins, he is not only just to for- 
give us our sins, but also faithful and just to cleanse us 
from all unrighteousness. Oh what a relief it is when 
our guilt is removed ! How the soul springs back to God 
when this burden, this load of guilt and condemnation, is 
taken off, and how great is our joy when we feel that we 
have passed from death unto life, when we feel that by the 
forgiveness of our sins we are translated into the kingdom 
of God^s dear Son, and, being children, are the "heirs of 
God, and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ,^^ to an inheritance 
incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away ! Oh, 
in that first moment, when our heavenly Father smiles 
upon us, when we take hold of heaven, and feel that we 
have a title to it, how great our relief and our joy! And 
if that were all of religion, it would be worth more than 
everything else; but our text says he not only forgives us 
our sins, but also that he cleanses us from all unrighteous- 
ness. Oh, the purifying of the heart, this taking away 
all our depravity, this regulating our affections, purifying 
our motives, and making holy our aspirations ! — oh what 
a change is this ! And God is faithful to do it. He has 
given you a desire for it, and he is faithful to satisfy that 
desire. He gives you to aspire to it, and he is faithful to 
meet that aspiration of your rising spirit. And he is just 
to do it; for, through the mediation of Jesus Christ and 



SERMON BY BISHOP JANES. 123 

the atonement made^ we have provided for us the office- 
work of the Holy Ghost^ and by the operation of that 
Divine Spirit w^e may be created anew in Christ Jesus ; 
made partakers of the Divine nature; have reimpressed 
upon us the Divine image; may be made not only heirs 
of that inheritance^ but meet for it. ^^He is faithful and 
just to forgive us our sins^ and to cleanse us from all un- 
righteousness^^ — ^^from all unrighteousness.^^ And, as 
we said before, all unrighteousness is sin, and if we are 
cleansed from all unrighteousness, we are cleansed from 
all sin. 

jSTow, remember; look at this subject for a few minutes. 
These two blessings, pardon and regeneration, justification 
and sanctification, are here presented in the same manner, 
offered upon the same condition, and guaranteed to us by 
the same assurances. That is the first general remark to 
which we ask your attention upon this subject — the faith- 
fulness and justice of God. Well, now, a few remarks 
further upon this subject. We have defined this cleans- 
ing from all unrighteousness to be the renewing of our 
souls by the Holy Ghost. The question naturally arises, 
^^When is this done? At the same time that we are 
pardoned I answer, partly at the same time that you 
are awakened. The first time that you have a thought 
of God come into your mind, a consciousness of guilt and 
depravity, and see and feel your need of forgiveness and 
regeneration; the very first time that a thought and desire 
of holiness is suggested and inspired within you, you are 
made the better for it, you are holier then than before; 
and then, as you progress in seeking forgiveness, the asso- 
ciations in your mind, the very thinking as you do of 
God, the reading as you do the Bible, the very association 



124 



SIK AND SALVATION. 



of Christ in your mind with the atonement which you 
need and the salvation which you hope for — thesa 
thoughts improve your character; they have a power of 
association upon your character, and make you better; and 
though you feel yourself to be getting worse and worse all 
the while, thank God ! you are getting better. And when, 
in your repentance, you come to Christ, and trust your 
guilty soul to his atonement and mediation, and ask for 
pardon in his name and for his sake, and God hears your 
cry, and forgives your sin, and removes your guilt, he 
gives you, at the same time, the washing of regeneration 
and the renewing of the Holy Ghost.^^ Your purification 
has been greatly promoted. 

Oh how changed now your thoughts, feelings, and the 
condition of your heart! The things you before hated 
you love. Oh how you love prayer, and the Bible, and 
goodness, and good people, and God, and heaven ! How 
changed now the current of your affections and the desires 
of your soul ! How you hate sin, abhor it ! How un- 
clean it is in your sight ! How vile and corrupt seems to 
have been your former life ! How you now abhor all sin ! 
What a change of character ! And nov/, with your heart 
so changed, you love Jesus and God, and hate sin and 
every evil way. Oh how it troubles you that you find 
in yourself yet thoughts, and feelings, and motives, and 
suggestions that are unholy; that God cannot approbate; 
that you do not approbate, but hate. And now there re- 
mains this further work to be done, stated in the text as a 
cleansing from all unrighteousness.^^ How shall we 
obtain it? I said before, our sanctification and justifica- 
tion were presented upon the same condition: "If we 
confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us 



SERMON BY BISHOP JANES. 



125 



our sins^ and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 
And what we have to do now^ in order to realize this 
fall sanctification^ is to confess to God our sinfulness — • 
v/hat remains of sin within us — what we still find of evil 
in our hearts; to do it with penitence, with godly sorrow, 
acknowledging how helpless we are, and that nothing but 
the blood of Christ can cleanse from all sin; and, at the 
same time that we do this, send up our struggling desires 
to God for the sanctifying influences of his Holy Spirit. 
When we thus confess, God sends down his Spirit to effect 
this work in our hearts. ^^He is faithful and just to 
cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 

Another question rises, which w^e will notice : May it 
be done instantly, or must it be progressive?" I again 
repeat — and I intend you shall never forget the text until 
you go to heaven, and I am sure you will not forget it 
there — the conditions of justification and sanctification, 
according to the text, are the same. "Well, how about 
justification? May that be instantaneous, or must it be 
gradual ? I am told that there was one man converted 
here yesterday who had been seeking pardon for seven 
years. I think that was a gradual conversion — gradual 
justification. I am glad he found pardon after seeking 
seven years ; and it would have been worth seeking for 
seven years more, if he hadn^t found it. But, then, I 
insist he would have honored God more if seven years 
ago he had cast his helpless soul on Christ, and, by faith, 
received pardon, and regeneration, and adoption, and been 
all these seven years a happy child of God, a disciple of 
our Lord Jesus Christ. It would have been much better 
for him and more honoring to God. 

But w^hen Vve seek forgiveness, there must be a moment 
11^ 



126 



SIN AXD SALVATION. 



when God says, Thy sins are forgiven thee J' And when 
the pardon is written both in his book and on the heart, 
oh how quick it comes, and how consciously are wq 
apprised of the fact! And I believe we may be a long 
time seeking our sanctification, and growing better all the 
while too. The work may be gradual according to the 
context, that ^4f we walk in the light as he is in the light, 
we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of 
Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin.^^ This 
walking with God of itself is a sanctifying power, and the 
meditating upon God, reading the word of God, observing 
the sacraments and ordinances of God, are all transform- 
ing; and no man can be in a justified state, and "walk in 
the light,^^ without growing better. And if he continues 
to walk with God, there will come in his experience a 
moment when he will rejoice in the consciousness that 
the promise of the text has been fulfilled, that he is 
cleansed from all unrighteousness — every affection holy, 
every aspiration of his spirit pure, every motive right; he 
can say with the Psalmist, "Thou restorest my soul.^^ He 
has received the spirit of " power, and of love, and of a 
sound mind.^^ The soul is restored — ^restored to the image 
and nature of God; he is "cleansed from all sin.^^ 

But the point to which I now invite attention is this : 
May we receive its sanctifying power sooner ? May these 
hearts here before me to-day, who desire above everything 
else to be made pure, may they realize this experience 
now ? Our text teaches us that, " if we confess our sins, 
he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse 
us from all unrighteousness.^^ Whenf When does he 
forgive? Why, when we confess and forsake our sins. 
When does he cleanse us from all unrighteousness ? I 



SEEMON BY BISHOP JANES. 



127 



answer, in the words of my text, when " we confess and 
forsake our sins^^ — confess them under a sense of humili- 
ation and contrition for the remaining corruption in our 
soul — come to him, and, in the name of the blessed 
Mediator, ask and receive — that is the moment ; and be- 
cause God does it, it can be done now. If you or I had 
to do it, it would be a very progressive work ; but, as God 
does it, he can do it as quickly as he created the world. 
He who " spake, and it was done,'^ can speak to thy 
soul, and life, and love, and power shall flow through 
every part of thy redeemed nature. Expect it now. 
^^N"ow is the accepted time, and now is the day of 
salvation." 

I wish to call your attention to one more consideration 
here. I ask my brethren who have some misgivings on 
this question about this instantaneous sanctification, what 
we are going to do with all the experience of the Church 
on this subject? It has been one of our exultant doc- 
trines that religion was experimental, that religion was 
conscious ; and w^e have preached most persistently and 
vehemently the witness of the Spirit to our justification; 
and we have quoted — oh how many thousand times ! — the 
language of "Wesley: "My heart strangely warmed." 
We have said that was conscious conversion, and have re- 
joiced in it, and have sought the same blessing, and have 
found it, and exulted in it. Well, now, what shall we do, 
when Fletcher, and Benson, and Bramwell, and David 
Stoner, and Doctors Fisk and Olin and Bangs, and tens 
of thousands of others, have testified, both in life and 
death, that they are conscious of the hour and place when 
God, by the Holy Ghost, cleansed them from all unright- 
eousness? What are you going to do with this testi- 



128 



SIN Ajq^D SALVATION. 



mony? You must believe it^ or you must doubt the wit- 
ness of the Spirit in the case of justification. 

Well, now, if it be possible for us to realize instantly 
and to-day this cleansing from all unrighteousness, will 
any member of the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ go 
from this place, go from this ground, unsanctified? Will 
you not now confess what remains of worldliness and im- 
perfectness in your heart? What- remains there of WTong 
motive and wrong spirit? How much God sees that yet 
needs to be done for you ! Then will you not bow down 
here before him, and most humbly and penitently confess 
it, and ask and receive through our Lord Jesus Christ the 
sanctifying Spirit? Is there not in goodness an attraction? 
And is there not in the fellowship of God a fruition which 
is sufficient to attract, to draw, to allure you to the blood 
that cleanses from all sin? Oh, by the beauty and bliss 
of holiness, I beg you, one and all, come and seek it, and 
seek it now, and expect it now ! Let this be the hour 
when, and the place from which, the tidings shall go to 
heaven that you have fallen into the fountain opened for 
sin and uncleanness.^^ Let God, for Chrlst^s sake, sanc- 
tify you wholly; and then look to him, and continue to 
look to him, that you may be preserved blameless unto the 
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

And I am pleased, my heart exults in the fact, that I 
can say to my guilty fellow-men. There is pardon for you. 
I remember the time when I was impenitent, and remem- 
ber even better when I was penitent; I bowed before God, 
and confessed my sins, and found mercy. Oh come and 
seek, by repentance toward God, the forgiveness of all 
your sins ! But I desire most intensely tliat the Churchy 
that the children of God, that believers should receive the 



SERMON BY BISHOP JANES. 



129 



fulfillment of tlie promise of the text in all the plenitude 
of the Divine blessing. Oh be not satisfied^ but continue 
seeking until you find cleansing from all unrighteous- 
ness^ until there is no guilty stain^ no unholy affection, 
no sinful desire, no wrong motive lurking in your 
spirit, but all be cleansed away by the power of the Holy 
Ghost ! 

It will still be a historic fact that we have sinned ; but 
also that we have confessed, been forgiven, and cleansed 
from all unrighteousness. Therefore, we in heaven can 
join in the song unto "Him that loved us, and washed 
us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us 
kings and priests unto God and His Father. To Him 
be glory and dominion, for ever and ever. Amen.^^ 

Praying God that we may be a holy Church on earth, 
I hope we may meet in heaven in the presence of God, 
and the enjoyment of his glory through Jesus Christ. 
Amen. 



Dr. Mattison's Theological Works. 



J. TJie Immortality of the Soul^ Considered in 
the Light of the Holy Scriptures ; the Testimony of Eeason 
and IsTature ; and the Phenomena of Life and Death. 400 pp* 
12mo. Cloth, $1.50. 

IIo The Mesurreetion of the Dead ; Considered 

in the Light of History, Philosophy, and Divine Eevelation, 
with an Introduction hy Eev. Matthew Simpson, D.D., one of 
the Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 400 pp. 
12mo, cloth. Price, $1.50. 

III. ' The Doctrine of the Trinity ^ and of the 

Divinity of Christ ; as against the Yarious Porms of Modern 
Unitarianism. Tenth edition. 18mo, 162 pages. Price, in 
cloth, 75 cents. 

IV. The llinister^s Foeket Mittial : A Hand- 

Book of Scripture Lessons and Porms of Service, for Mar- 
riages, Baptisms, the Reception of Candidates into the Church, 
the Lord's Supper, the Visitation of the Sick, the Burial of the 
Dead, the Layiug of the Corner-Stones of Churches, Dedica- 
tions, Ordinations, Installations, etc., together with Practical 
Suggestions to Young Ministers upon the hest mode of conduct- 
ing these various services. Adapted to use by all denominations. 
This is a long and narrow-paged 12mo in large type, and ele- 
gantly bound, with a view to its being carried in the side-pocket. 
Elegant morocco, $1. 
A pattern of taste and neatness. — Christian Advocate and Journal. 
Every young minister, and most advanced ones, want such a book as this. 
It is elegantly gotten up, and arranged most admirably. Professor Mattison 
will receive many thanks for this little work, and we hope some profit. — 
American Baptist. 

F. Perfect Love : Speeches of Kevs. E. L. Janes, Matti- 
son, Curry, Brown, and Buckley, in the IsTew York Preachers' 
Meeting, upon the subject of Sanctification ; with the remark- 
able Sermon of Bishop Janes, at the ISTewark Conference Camp 
Meeting, Aug. 18, 1867. 130 pp. 12mo. Paper covers, 50 cts. 
Cloth, Y5. 

1^ Any of the above will he sent hy mail, post-paid, 
on receipt of the price. Very little risJc in sending. 
Direct letters, Mev.M. IIATTISOJV, Jersey City, N.J. 



VI. Fopiilav Amtisemejits : au Appeal to Method- 
ists, in regard to the evils of Card-plajing, Billiards, Dancing, 
Theatre-going, etc. 96 pp. 12mo, in paper covers. Price, 25 cts 

VII. Select Lessons from the Holy Seripttireso 

Adapted to Responsive Eeading in Sundaj-Schools. 210 pp. 
18mo, 30 cts. 

VIII. Sacred llelodies for Social Worshijy* 

432 pp. 32mo. Cloth, price 75 cts. 

The most complete collection of such music in existence. — Zioti's Herald. 

It furnishes the best variety of tunes and hymns for religious meetiugs of 
any book extant. — Rev. J. W. Dadmum, Boston. 

The best collection of hymns and tunes for social worship that we have yet 
met with. — Canada Christian Advocate. 

IX. A Defense of American 3Iet1iodism^ 

against the Criticisms, Inculpations, and Complaints of a Series 
of Sermons by Eev. Edward D. Bryan, Pastor of the Old 
School Presbyterian Chnrch, Washington, IST. J. 64 pages, 
octavo. Price, 30 cents. Eeplete with new and valuable 
statistics that can be found nowhere else. 

X. Sacred Sheet Mnsic. 

Let the Angels In," ^' The Cleansing Fountain," " Jesus is 
Mine," Heaven at Last," The Voice of the Departed," etc., 
fourteen different pieces, " Sweet and Heavenly," 50 cents. 

XI Joyful Songs for Zion^s Filgrims. 

The same pieces in elegant colored covers, 50 cents. 

XII. Sunday -^School Cards. 

ISTo. 1. The Lord's Prayer and Ten Commandments. 
!N'o. 2. The Apostles' Creed, and a list of the Books of the 
Bible. 

E'o. 3. Order of Exercises for a School, and Eules for its 
Government. 

These cards are on thick colored pasteboard, printed on both 
sides, and are extremely neat and useful. Price, $1 per hundred. 

^"Any of the above will he sent hy mail, post-paid, on 
receipt of the price. Very little risU in sending. Direct 
letters, Bev. H. 3IATTISON, Jersey City, N.J. 



TAYLOR & FARLEY 

ORGANS & MELODEONS. 



This firm commenced business, in 1855, with but two workmen. 
Their business has constantly increased without any extraordinary 
effort on their part by advertising, &o., till now they employ a 
large number of men in their Factory, in which they have ample 
steam power, and every convenience needed in a Factory of this 
kind. 

They have added to their facilities for manufacturing, machinery 
the most perfect of its kind ever made for making reeds — and have 
no hesitation in saying the reeds used in their Organs and Melo- 
deons are superior to any others. 

They have numerous testimonials from leading Organists and 
Dealers who have purchased and. used their instruments. They 
leave it, however, to an intelligent public whether the increased 
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they give in every instance, is not sufficient proof that they ar 
equal to any manufactured. 

These Organs combine two new and valuable Patents, of their 
own invention, viz., a Patent Knee Swell and Patent Manual SuJ?- 
Bass^ with Octave Coupler. 

These Organs and Melodeons have been exhibited in Fairs in 
competition with all the leading manufacturers of Boston, F f 
York, and Buffalo, and in every instance have been awarded tl> 

Every Instrument made by them is warranted for five 
YEAPwS, and they are ready to make any necessary repairs not caused 
by accident or design, free of charge^ within one year from date of 
sale. 

A liberal discount to Clergymen, Churches, and Sabbath 

Schools. 

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General Agekts, 42T Beoome steeet, ^T.Y. 

From personal acquaintance with this" firm, I can endorse 
them as worthy of the fullest confidence of the Christian public. 
Kew Yoek, October, 1867. H. MATTISON". 

H 15T ? 









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